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Author's Note: Here's chapter 2 of A Cold Fey In Hell. I'll be continuing to post chapters weekly but if you want to read more there are further chapters there available to the public on my Patreon page. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 2: Death and What Comes After

I could hear voices. Not a choir of angels or anything, don’t count me out of the game so soon. No, Jessica and Chief Little were talking with someone but at first whatever they were saying seemed fuzzy to me like my brain was playing all of it in super slow motion. The other voice belonged to a woman and it took me a moment to recognize it. She was the one who attacked me. “...should be coming out of it soon, don’t worry. It looked worse than it was and I didn’t hit him anywhere vital. We had to make it look convincing, so I can collect my pay and you don’t have to worry about someone else coming after him.”

I heard Jessica ask, “Are you sure? There was a lot of blood.”

I let my eyes flutter open and saw that I seemed to be in an ambulance with that strange woman smiling down at me. “There we go, see I told you so. Sorry about the drugging and the pain, Kid, but we needed to make your death convincing to anyone who might be watching. For that, we needed you to leave a good amount of blood behind and I had to coat my claws in a drug cocktail that slowed your pulse and breathing enough to make you appear dead.”

“I would have warned you, Seth, but we needed your reaction to appear genuine,” Chief Little apologized. “Seth, allow me to introduce Surie Rourke. She’s a bounty hunter and…”

“A Demon,” I finished as my eyes went wide and I lurched to sit up in the stretcher I was on, causing pain to shoot through my midsection. Between the pain and being still mostly encased in a body bag, getting up wasn’t easy either.

“Half Demon,” Surie clarified before placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. “Easy, Kid, we just got you patched up, don’t go bleeding on us again. You’re already going to have to take it easy from the blood you did lose and until the drugs are completely out of your system.”

“But Demons want me dead,” I said uncertainly, trying very hard not to shrink back in fear.

The half-Demon shook her head. “One group of Demons wants you dead, Kid. Demons don’t usually agree on anything unilaterally, there’s too much infighting and power games. I don’t usually associate with full-blooded Demons unless there’s a paycheck in it and the target has done something to deserve being dead. Sometimes I help the PDA with cases like yours where an innocent Paranormal needs their death faked so they can be quietly relocated. I get the bounty and you get them off your back, it's win-win.”

Chief Little nodded in agreement. “We allowed some people to witness your death and now we’re making like we’re trying to cover it up like we normally would. We’ll feed the news some bullshit story about gang violence and since you’re technically a Paranormal there’s nothing unusual about us coming to claim your body after such an incident, especially since we already had people on the scene.”

“So, what now?” Jessica asked, her ears twitching in worry.

“Now you both go to a safe house for a few days while we let this play through the news and make sure that the Demons have Seth crossed off their list. We’ll need to work out a new identity for Seth so he can travel too,” Chief Little replied.

After Surie had made sure we weren’t being followed she left us to contact someone about collecting my bounty and I was able to change clothes at Werehouse Imports and Exports, the business that served as a cover for various PDA installations across the country. While I was doing that Chief Little arranged for a safe house and an escort so that Jessica and I could lay low for a few days before going to our final destination, wherever that was. Then once those arrangements were made they had gotten Jessica and me to put on what clothes we had for cold weather, drove us to the airport, and put us on a helicopter with a woman who I assumed was the agent who would act as our escort.

Jessica was a nervous wreck and I wasn’t doing much better as we rode in the helicopter on the way to the safe house. I was trying to hide my grief and fear for her sake, but I knew that I probably wasn’t doing a very good job. I was clutching Jessica’s hand so tightly that both of us were white-knuckled. I still couldn’t believe that Dad was dead and I was on a hit list. A Demon hit list. And now we had faked my death and there had just been too much going on for me to process.

“Do you think that your Mom will take in both of us?” Jessica’s whispered question made me jump a bit. Yeah, I was a little on edge, but you probably would be too in my place. She had been crying again, her eyes were all puffy and she was sniffling. I couldn’t blame her. Dad was dead and because we had to leave home for my safety we couldn’t even go to the funeral. Add to that that we might be able to move in with some woman we’d never met before and I felt like crying too. If I didn’t have to be strong for Jess I probably would have.

I sighed and shrugged, wincing at the pain it caused underneath my bandages. “I don’t know,” I told her honestly, whispering back. “I’ve never met the woman. I didn’t even know her name or that she’s apparently a Paranormal, much less that she’s alive and Dad knew how to contact her.” I was kinda pissed at my father for keeping that from me all these years, but I would have gladly forgiven him if he could just come back to us. He wasn’t going to though and until I was sure that my mother was going to take Jessica in as well, all we had was one another.

Dammit, this was getting me thinking about my Dad again, when I was trying really hard not to. I wanted to know more about this safe house that we were going to, and about my mysterious mother that Chief Little was trying to contact too. I used to think that she was human and that I just wasn’t Fey enough to develop Fey abilities during puberty and since I didn’t Manifest like a lot of other Paranormals do in adolescence.

I never knew my mother, and Dad didn’t like to talk about her, so I never really knew for sure if she was human or some kind of Paranormal like my dad and Jessica. Now I knew, and I was going to live with her. She was a Paranormal, but what kind, and what did that make me?

Unfortunately, the pilot and the woman sent to guard us weren’t much help in the answer department. The former was concentrating on flying, which I was extremely grateful for. As for the latter, she just quietly and morosely watched us for the most part and kept looking around for danger as if something could actually attack us thousands of feet in the air.

At least our escort, whose name was Merriwynd, was a Fey so that made Jessica and me fairly comfortable around her. She had long pointed ears, crystal blue eyes with slit pupils, and long strawberry blonde hair. She could have been full-blooded if not for the eyes, and they had caught my attention since it was an unusual eye color for a Fey. Usually, full-bloods had eyes in various shades of green, brown, or amber.

The reason most people refer to ‘elves’ like Merriwynd as Fey and the cousin varieties by their own various species names is because the traditional hardline Fey don’t want to accept being called a lesser term while ‘Fey’ gets used as an umbrella term, they have too much pride. Hell, they could barely stand being lumped in under the ‘Paranormal’ classification. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t hate their ‘lesser Fey’ cousins. In fact, the opposite is true. They see them as something special because they are even more connected with nature than the Fey themselves are, that’s why Dad took in Jessica.

Our Fey escort didn’t look much older than us but as I’ve said before, with Fey appearances can be deceiving. We were actually pretty sure that Jessica was older than me but she looked like she was maybe sixteen or seventeen. Merriwynd on the other hand looked to be in her early twenties but the way that she spoke and how she carried herself made me think that she was far older.

Not that she had said much. Merriwynd either wasn’t much of a talker or didn’t like having to protect two kids. The only things that she had really told us since we took off were her name and that the safe house was somewhere near Whistler, which was why we needed to dress warmly. There was something familiar about her, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on whether it was her name or something else.

A short time later the pilot called over his shoulder that we were lowering our altitude and would be landing in a few minutes. I looked out the window and saw that we were descending toward a cabin set in a carpet of thick white powder. Living in Vancouver you don’t really see snow often unless you head to Whistler or some of the other ski resorts in the mountains to the north. I couldn’t remember seeing any up close since before we found Jessica.

Once we had landed Merriwynd had us grab our suitcases, while she grabbed her own, and we slogged through the snow to the cabin, dragging our luggage. Jessica had enough bags that we needed to make two trips, but it didn’t take too long. By the time we were back from the second trip, Merriwynd had entered a security code in a keypad beside the door and quickly ushered us inside the cabin. Inside it was small, cozy, and rustic with little more than a fireplace, a wood stove, a couch, a fridge and freezer, and two bedrooms.

It seemed like the moment we closed the cabin door the helicopter took off and Merriwynd started talking. “I’m here as your escort and my job is to keep us all alive and safe. If I give you an order follow it because it’s probably for your own good. I am not however your nanny or maid, nor is this a prison. While we’re here I figure that we’ll all contribute with cooking and cleaning, and if you want to go out and enjoy the snow feel free, but don’t stray far from the cabin. I will be watching you every minute that you’re not safe inside this cabin.”

We took a look around the cabin, Merriwynd because she wanted to make sure everything was secure and Jessica and me to get the lay of the land. There were only two bedrooms, but Merriwynd settled that situation by claiming the couch so she could react faster if somebody tried to get inside who shouldn’t be.

I didn’t bother unpacking my suitcases, I just opened them and kept them near the bed in case I needed anything. Jessica though was hanging all of her clothes or putting them in drawers. She usually wasn’t a neat freak so I figured that she was trying to keep herself busy and distracted. Yup, her ears were twitching again. “I… Jess… it’ll be okay,” I said to her, but I wasn’t really sure if I was trying to convince her or myself.

“Yeah, sorry Seth, I just…. y’know, figured I should put everything away properly so it doesn’t all wrinkle. A lot of my stuff is silk or satin so I should take proper care of it like Dad keeps telling…” She stopped herself from finishing that sentence. Like most Fey and their various cousins, Jessica and Dad had both shared an acute allergy to most synthetic cloth materials so most of the clothes that they bought had to be silk, hemp, wool, or at least 95% pure cotton and with only natural dyes used. That could be both tricky and expensive so it had been a good thing that Dad had a decent job to buy clothes for them both at shops that catered to Paranormals with special needs.

Apparently, Jessica’s aborted comment had gotten her thinking about Dad again as well. She turned away and tried to make it look like she was focused on unpacking and putting her clothes away but I could hear her sniffling and see her ears twitching atop her head. I quickly crossed the room and wrapped her up in a hug. “It’ll be oka…”

“You keep saying that! Dad is gone and we’re on the run! How is it going to be okay?!” she shouted as she turned toward me with her anger, grief, and pain contorting her face in a way that broke my heart as much as losing Dad did.

I could see in her eyes that she immediately regretted her outburst so I just wrapped my arms around her again and held her tighter. “Because you still have me, silly rabbit. That won’t ever change and nobody is going to break us apart. No matter what I’ll always be your brother,” I promised. I held her tightly and protectively in my arms until she stopped crying and then I left her to her distraction. It’s almost funny how that one little promise would become impossible for me to keep, at least the last part.

When I returned to the living room I saw that Merriwynd had opened her pair of suitcases on the coffee table. I was surprised to see that less than half of the space had been occupied by clothes. She had already removed a pair of long curved swords, a collapsible bow, a quiver of arrows, a gun, and a pair of knives. Now she was in the process of placing each and every one of those weapons somewhere upon her body, where they would be accessible if she needed them.

One thing that we discovered quickly about Merriwynd was that she might be all business, but she was not cold-hearted. Like most Fey, she had a soft spot for her distant cousins in the Fey family and that included Jessica and even me since I might look human but I did have some Fey blood. She took the first turn for cooking and made us all a vegetarian stir-fry and I think she had figured out that Jess needed a distraction to keep from thinking about Dad.

After we had finished washing the dishes from our lunch she gave Jess a long look and said, “You need to learn to defend yourselves. You’re a Púca so you should be able to keep up with me. Let’s start with some basic hand-to-hand.” Then she had us help her move some of the furniture to make room to do just that.

An hour later I was getting bored from watching them. I’d have joined in but I never would have been able to keep up with either of them, they were just too fast and agile. Jessica was getting just what she needed though, distraction and a chance to burn off some of her frustration and anger over the loss of Dad and our current situation.

When they finally decided to call it quits for the afternoon I was ready to do just about anything else. I could sympathize with Jess more too. I had had far too much time to think, about Dad and about everything that had happened since we had gotten the call from the hospital the day before. It felt like my heart was being shattered into a million pieces and I knew that I couldn’t afford to fall apart right then.

I was curious about Merriwynd as well though. For some reason, she was very familiar to me and I couldn’t place why or from where. And whenever we mentioned Dad or tried to avoid mentioning him she looked as hurt as we were. So as we all sat down so that she and Jess could take a post-workout rest I had to ask, “Did you know our Dad? I mean you probably saw each other in passing since he worked with the PDA too, but was there more than that? I mean, I keep thinking that I’ve met you before.”

“I don’t work for the PDA but you have met me before,” the Fey said with a sad shake of her head. “You were very young then, so I wasn’t sure if you’d remember your Aunt Merry. Your father and I were close growing up. We weren’t related but we grew up as siblings, much like you and Jessica. We grew up among the Fey, but we were both different and that brought us even closer together.”

What do you mean? You look like a Fey to me,” Jessica asked in confusion.

“Blue isn’t a normal eye color for Fey, Jess,” I told her.

Merriwynd shrugged and nodded. “Your father and I were both only half-Fey. His mother was human and he ended looking mostly human as well and had barely any Fey abilities. My mother was a Sylph, one of the Air elementals, and I ended up with all of the Fey looks and most of the abilities but my eyes are blue and I ended up aligned to the Air element rather than Wood like other Fey. We were both accepted but at the same time we were outcasts too and we really relied on one another.”

“Is that why you both came to the Material Plane?” Jess asked.

“Yes, your father could fit in here and I could too as long as I used a glamour. We met Seth’s mother not long after arriving in Toronto and we all became very close.” Merriwynd explained before turning her azure gaze toward me once again and letting out a long sigh. “When you were born your mother sent you off with your father to keep you safe and she went elsewhere to start over while I stayed with her to provide protection. I visited a few times when you were little to see you and Dairen and so your mother would know that you were doing okay, but I haven’t had much time since she and her partner started up the new business ten years ago. As soon as we heard about Dairen’s death and the hit list I came to protect you until we could get you home.”

“Why didn’t she come to visit herself? Why didn’t I even know she existed until now?!” I snapped angrily.

“Because you would have been in danger,” she replied calmly. “People would have used you as a hostage against your mother if they knew you existed. You’re old enough to realize that danger now and we will take precautions to keep you and Jessica safe. At least you never Manifested, and it seems unlikely now, but I’ll have to warn you that your mother’s lifestyle may be unsettling to you at first.”

“Me and Jess? So you think that she’ll take both of us in?” I asked hopefully, my anger momentarily forgotten. Though I had to wonder just who and what my mother was and why people would try to use me against her. Was I just making my way out of the frying pan to land in the fire?

“Yes, she’s known about Jessica since Dairen took her in and she’s been receiving updates from him about both of you. Report cards, photos, and even Jessica’s acting endeavors, your dad sent everything he could whenever he could through a mutual friend. Jessica is a sister to you and your mother will gladly take her in. She may not have been able to be there for you in person until now, but that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t want to. She’s watched you both grow up from afar and she’s eager to meet you both in person,” Merriwynd assured us.

It sounded good, but the fact that she seemed reluctant to say my mother’s name had me on edge. She also didn’t say where exactly my mother was so I still had no clue where we were going to be going and didn’t know much about my absentee mother other than that she existed. It was getting a little infuriating. “Who and what is my mother? Why all of this secrecy, and why would people try to use me against her?” I pressed insistently.

She shook her head. “It’s better that you don’t know until we get there. I haven’t found any listening devices in this “safe” house, but I would rather not risk it until I am certain that we are safe to freely discuss it. Dairen trusted Edward Little so I am sure that he has earned that trust, but I do not know him and I cannot completely entrust your safety, or your mother’s, to someone who I don’t know and trust completely. This is why I asked to escort you rather than one of his agents and I will not feel that the two of you or your mother’s identity will be safe until we are at home.”

“And you won’t tell us where that is either?” I asked, already suspecting what her answer would be.

“Not until we are safely there,” Merriwynd replied carefully. She wasn’t going to budge on the topic and I couldn’t really blame her since it seemed that she was worried about our safety.

I needed to get out and clear my head, all this brooding and asking questions that I wasn’t going to get answers to wasn’t helping my mood and if I started to look depressed or unsure then Jessica would be sure to pick up on it and start feeling depressed too. Maybe Jess was right about a distraction keeping our mind off things and as it happened we had a big white field full of distractions just outside the door. “Do you mind if I get some fresh air?” I asked.

“Sure, but we all stick together, no getting out of my sight, even for a second,” the Fey woman responded after a moment.

We got our jackets, boots, and gloves on and stepped back out into the cold crisp mountain air. It was snowing heavily so the view wasn’t great but for some reason, I felt so much better as we just stood outside with the snow falling around us. It was strange, but I felt like this was where I belonged for some reason. I gleefully tossed a snowball at Jessica and she squealed as it thwacked her in the back of the head and split apart, some partially melting as it made its way down the back of her neck. She tossed one back and hit me in the shoulder and then it was on.

Sometime later we were laughing and breathing heavily from our snowball fight, all of our problems momentarily forgotten, and I fell onto my back into the snow and sighed as I looked up at the snow falling down on me from above. My dad used to tell me that as Fey we were deeply connected to nature, that we were part of it, but I had never felt that connection before. I tried, but I sometimes worried that I just wasn’t Fey enough for it. Now I had that connection. It was this perfect moment where I felt like I was at one with the snow and ice around me.

It was the most intensely serene that I had ever felt… until the screaming began. At first, I didn’t even realize that it was me. My body felt like it was being ripped apart from the inside out. Hot flashes and cold shivers took turns pulsing through my entire being and every muscle in my body locked up as my bones and joints were popped, pulled, and twisted and agony became my new best friend.

“Seth! Omigod what’s wrong with him?!” I heard Jessica’s voice scream from the very edge of my senses.

It seems that sometimes one language just doesn’t have enough swear words. Merriwynd seemed to agree as she let out an impressive litany of Fey swear words and then went on in English. “Fuck! Shit! She’s Manifesting! Why now of all times?! Her element just had to be Ice, didn’t it?! Quickly, Jessica! We need to get those clothes off of her!”

“She?! Her?! Wait, Seth is Manifesting?!” Jess’s voice squealed uncertainly.

If Merriwynd answered her I didn’t hear what she said, I was too busy fainting from the pain of my entire skeleton being rearranged. It was the burning feeling that awoke me. I probably hadn’t been out long since I could feel Jess and Merriwynd pulling at my jacket sleeves. It wasn’t near fast enough.

I knocked Merriwynd and Jessica over in my haste as I jumped up to start tearing off my clothes screaming, “Owowow!! Get’em off!!!” Everywhere that my clothes touched me it felt like my skin was on fire and I instinctively knew that they were the cause. I pulled off my gloves and that seemed to ease the burning of my hands so I stripped off my jacket next and then the boots, socks, pants, and even my underwear. The only thing that hadn’t felt like it was burning me alive had been my cotton t-shirt.

I just knelt there like that in the snow for a moment. It seemed to help ease the burning in my lower legs so I dropped and rolled through the snow, feeling sweet relief wherever it touched. “Are you crazy, it’s like minus twenty out here!” Jess was shouting, but I didn’t care, it didn’t feel cold to me and it was helping to ease my burning skin.

I raised my hands to the sky to look at my arms, afraid that I had been set on fire and horribly burned or something. There was a blotchy redness, like the rashes that Jessica or Dad got when they wore something not made from natural fibers. It seemed to be fading though and I thought that the snow might have something to do with that as red blotchiness faded to alabaster-white skin on slender feminine hands and arms.

Now, in my head, I knew that this should be raising alarms, but I felt so nice now that the pain and irritation of the rash were fading. I felt so right, like before that moment I had spent every minute of my life slowly becoming something that I shouldn’t be. Now I wasn’t becoming, I was, and what I was felt so good. I was comfortable, content, and truly myself for the first time ever.

Wait, there was one thing wrong. It was my shirt. I was still wearing it because it had been the only piece of clothing that hadn’t been burning me but it felt wrong and uncomfortable like it was unnecessary and annoying, enough so that I could feel a surge of anxiety about it welling up inside my chest. I really needed to take it off. I started pulling it off and it got caught on my breasts.

Wait, breasts? Those were new. They felt really nice though, especially when I touched them and for a moment I got lost in caressing them and playing with my nipples. Curious, I finished removing my shirt and began to run my hands over the rest of my body, it was so nice and smooth and that place between my legs was kind of warm and wet and it gave me more of those wonderful feelings until I shivered in pleasure.

Oh wait, I wasn’t alone. I could sense two other women and they smelled so nice. I turned to smile at them, biting my lip in need, and I twirled a strand of my long white hair around my finger as I looked up at them. “They’re so pretty, I wonder if they would be interested in…”

“What’s wrong with him… her?” Jessica’s voice inquired, interrupting that train of thought.

“Apparently she’s a Snow Nymph, and since she just Manifested and isn’t sleeping it off she’s probably going to be running on instinct for a little bit while her mind adjusts to her new body and nature,” the pretty Fey told Jessica. “Don’t worry about the cold it won’t bother her, and the snow seems to be helping her rash, but try not to touch her. She could get overwhelmed and do something she might regret later when she’s thinking more clearly. At least she seems to have some restraint.”

“You call that restraint?!” The Púca’s finger pointed to where I was using my fingers to try to generate those nice feelings between my legs again.

“Well, we’re warm bodies and she hasn’t jumped on either of us yet, so yeah I’m going to call that restraint. Especially since for Nymphs the general rule of thumb for having sex is ‘Anyone, anywhere, anytime.’ Nymph is the root word for Nymphomaniac for a reason. She should be resting though, Manifesting can be exhausting and she went through a pretty major change,” the Fey woman explained.

Jessica’s ears twitched and her nose wrinkled in agitation. It was so cute and as nice as the feelings that I was sparking between my legs with my fingers were, I felt like I needed more as she asked, “So what do we do then?”

“She’d probably be sleeping if she hadn’t had that allergic reaction to her clothes causing her so much pain. She’s too excited right now though and if we leave her doing that she could be at it a while or lose some of that restraint. If we can get her to relax somehow though she’ll probably pass right out. Then she should feel more her normal self when she wakes,” Merriwynd suggested.

“Somehow, I doubt that Seth is going to feel anything like his normal self when he… she wakes up,” Jessica muttered before letting forth an exasperated sigh. “Okay, it’s time to pull out the big guns. This usually puts us both to sleep when one of us is feeling anxious.” She shrank out of her clothes and then her rabbit-self extracted herself from the pile to hop toward me.

Oooh, she was such a pretty little white bunny and she looked so soft. She wrinkled her nose adorably as she bounced into my lap and I just couldn’t resist stroking that soft fur. She was so soft and warm and cuddly. I picked her up and held her against my chest as I petted her. It was so relaxing and soon I fell asleep with her held lovingly in my arms.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 3 of A Cold Fey In Hell. I'll be continuing to post chapters weekly but if you want to read more there are further chapters there available to the public on my Patreon page. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 3: Rude Awakening

I awoke feeling so comfortable and cozy and for a moment I didn’t want to open my eyes but just stay there as I was for a while. There was this pleasant warmth that seemed to be spreading from between my legs to my belly and it made me feel so content. “That was a really weird dream,” I thought to myself. “I don’t remember falling asleep, but it makes sense that I’d have strange dreams with all the stress of Dad’s death, Demons wanting me dead, being on the run, and having to go live with my mother. I hope that Jess is feeling better this morning. I really wish Dad were still here.”

The thought of Dad caused the dam that had been holding all of my anger and grief back for Jessica’s sake to burst. That pleasant spreading warmth within my belly ceased as I sat bolt upright and started to cry uncontrollably, bringing my hands up from where they had seemingly been resting in my lap to wipe at my tears. It was while I was sniffling and sobbing in my hands that I noticed a pungent heady scent. It almost smelled like Jessica’s bedroom that time that I had accidentally walked in on her while she was…

At that realization, the pieces started to fit together and my eyes snapped open to stare at the pale, small, and feminine hands that had been wiping my tears only a moment before. They had long delicate fingers that ended in oval-shaped fingernails with a slightly pearlescent sheen. Beyond those hands, a thick curtain of long white hair fell about me, so long that it pooled in my lap and upon the snow around my apparently naked form.

I looked down to my lap, brushing the hair aside, but I didn’t see my old familiar equipment there. A pair of prominent breasts with large pink areolae and nipples like pencil erasers partially blocked my view, but once the hair was out of the way I could make out a feminine mound with a tuft of hair as white as that which had been getting in my way.

This was not my body, it was definitely a girl’s body and I could barely think from the desire to test that body out. I was pretty sure the only thing stopping me from doing anything with Merriwynd and Jessica while I was in that fog before falling asleep was that they were both family. Jessica was my sister and, even though I hadn’t seen her since I was a child, Merriwynd was my aunt. I was so damn horny, if only there were a girl or a guy who could help me with that.

I quickly shut that thought process down. “No, I’m a guy and I’m attracted to girls, Surie was really hot if you ignored that whole half-Demon thing,” I thought with a smile. Thinking of her got me thinking of the agent that she had tossed aside like a softball. “He was so big and muscular, and kinda handsome too, I wouldn’t mind…”

I could feel my cheeks flushing as I quickly derailed that line of thought too. I couldn’t seem to trust my own thoughts or desires and almost all of them were centered around sex at the moment, it was like I was some sort of nympho… I gasped as a torrent of memories returned from before I had fallen asleep. “O…Oh shit. That wasn’t a dream,” I muttered into my hands, trying to hold back the tears from starting again.

“Afraid so, Kiddo,” Aunt Merry’s voice said sympathetically from where she was sitting on a tree stump nearby.

“No! I’m not… I can’t be… this isn’t…” I couldn’t finish those aborted denials. I began to hyperventilate as it felt like there was a tornado touching down inside my chest and tears flowed freely down my cheeks and past my shaking hands.

“Enough, Seth!” the blue-eyed Fey commanded in a tone that would allow no refusal.

I tried anyway. “But I can’t… I…”

“You’re thinking like Seth, but you’re not him anymore, you never really were,” she interrupted, chastising me. “You’re a Nymph, and you were always meant to be a Nymph, you’re just a bit of a late bloomer. If it’s any consolation, you shouldn’t feel uncomfortable like that. In fact, since you were born to be a Nymph your nature should make it feel more comfortable than your old body. Take a deep breath, close your eyes, and clear your mind. Feel your connection to the ice and snow around you and then think about how your body feels. Not how Seth would think it should feel, but how it really feels with your mind clear.”

I followed her instructions and it took me several minutes but I managed to clear my mind as I felt around me with a sense that I hadn’t known I’d possessed. The ice and snow around me, the moonlight washing over it all and me, it was like I was connected to all of it as if it were a part of me. It felt so right, like I’d been missing out on something my whole life and had just now found out what that was. I felt so alive, beautiful, and a part of the natural world, like I thought that I should have always felt from being part Fey. That emptiness that had always been there was filled now, this was me, and this was how I was supposed to be.

Now that I wasn’t in a total panic I opened my eyes and attempted to focus on my surroundings rather than my problems. We were quite a distance from the side of the cabin, and it was no longer snowing as a nearly full moon in a clear sky reflected off the snow, seeming to light up the entire field of snow. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know how long she had been outside in the cold watching over me.

I looked up to see Merriwynd watching me carefully, and she gave me a tired smile as I calmed down and told me, “I don’t expect you to be mentally comfortable with your change right now. That’s going to take some time, but you need to realize that this is who you are now. It’s who you’re meant to be and there is nothing wrong with accepting that.”

“How long was I out?” I asked anyway, a bit uncertainly. I didn’t really want to think about my body right now or how right she was. I had never felt this at ease and comfortable in my own body before and it scared me. I grew up a guy so this should feel all wrong. My mind kept thinking that but if I was being honest with myself, my body just wasn’t sending out the signals that this was wrong and uncomfortable. It felt good and right, like this was how I should have been all along. Quite frankly, it was giving me a bit of an identity crisis and as I sat there I just stared down at my body, trying to will it away, trying to make it feel wrong somehow because Seth shouldn’t feel comfortable like that.

“It’s nearly eight o’clock, so you’ve been out almost four hours,” the Fey replied with a shrug. “Frankly, I was expecting you to be out longer with such an extreme change.”

“You could have brought me inside, you must be freezing. Did you go inside to warm up at all?” I said with a frown as I realized how feminine and melodic my voice now sounded to my ears.

Merriwynd shook her head, but I wasn’t sure at first whether she was disagreeing about taking me inside for some reason or admitting to not going inside herself, but it was probably both. “I’m still not sure if the safe house has any hidden electronic or magical monitoring devices inside, so I would rather not reveal that you Manifested, or the nature of your new self. There is one camera outside, over the door of the cabin, but you were out of its field of vision when you Manifested, which is why I kept you here. It’s not like the cold is going to bother you.”

She was right, I was sitting out here in the snow and cold without a stitch on and I wasn’t cold at all. I wasn’t even wearing the bandages from where Surie had stabbed me, I figured that I must have pulled them off when I felt like I was burning alive. Not that there was a wound there anymore anyway, just smooth, pale, and perfect skin.

I shrugged in response to her comment, but that just made me more aware of the weight of my chest which of course brought to mind the rest of my very naked female body. And thinking of a naked girl, even if it was me, made me all too aware of the fact that I was hornier than I had ever been in my life. My cheeks flushed as I tried to get control of myself by taking a deep breath and asking, “Where’s Jess?”

“She’s inside packing our things and trying to find something of hers that you can wear. When she’s done we’ll head back to Vancouver. I’ve already contacted your mother with Air magic to let her know that things have changed,” she told me carefully.

I groaned in complaint. ”I have to wear girls’ clothes? And what’s changed, besides me of course?” I wasn’t quite sure if my objection to the clothes were more because what was left of Seth in my head objected to the fact that they were for girls or because the mere thought of wearing any clothes caused a wave of anxiety to surge through me for some reason.

“You’ll have to get used to them, you need to wear something if we’re going to be around people and your old clothes aren’t going to fit that body. You’re female now so get used to it, Kiddo. With your Manifestation, we have an opportunity that we didn’t before. Anyone still looking for you would be looking for Seth, you’re not him anymore and nobody is going to mistake you for him, so we can use that. We can’t stay here and let anyone, even the PDA, find out about this. It’s better for you and your sister for us to just disappear altogether.”

“But what about our stuff? Dad’s old bike, we rebuilt that together and…”

Merriwynd sighed. She didn’t look any happier about it than me as she cut me off. “Look, I know it’s not going to be easy, but the safest thing for you is if we use this opportunity and cut all ties to just vanish. Your mother has a lot of photos and things that Dairen sent to her so between those and the personal items in your suitcases you’ll still have some things from your old life. We can get you a new vehicle, we can’t get a new you if someone looks too deeply into your faked death and tracks us down here.”

I wasn’t happy, but I did understand where she was coming from. My mother had made our safety Merriwynd’s responsibility and since she obviously cared for both of my parents she took that seriously. Honestly, with the whole Demon hit list thing, a bit of paranoia would probably keep us all alive and healthy. Sure my dad had trusted Chief Little but he wasn’t the only one involved in our little faked death plot.

Sure any accidental human witnesses would have been ‘interviewed’ and had their memories altered by PDA psychics but there were others to consider. There were the fake witnesses, the agent who had been waiting outside the apartment, Surie Rourke, and the pilot who flew us to the safe house and I didn’t know any of them well enough to be sure that they wouldn’t turn informant for a price. Aunt Merry was right, it was best that we just vanish.

A few minutes later Jessica came out of the cabin with a bundle of clothing in her arms. “Sorry that it took so long, Merriwynd. She’s much curvier than I am, I don’t have any bras that are going to fit her either. She is not going to be happy about this when she wakes…” Her breath caught in her throat as she saw me sitting up. “Oh, you’re awake. Are you… y’know… okay?”

“Okay is a relative term,” I replied with a sigh. “Physically I’m fine, but I’m kinda freaking out and having a bit of an identity crisis right now.”

My sister nodded and placed the clothes on the stump that Merriwynd had been sitting on earlier as she tried to give me a reassuring smile and said, “Manifesting can be rough, your perspective can change a lot. At least I knew it was coming and what I would be in for. I was just starting puberty then too so I knew my body was going to be going through changes anyway. You’re my br… sister so I’ll do my best to help you through this.”

I stood up and walked over to hug her as I started to cry again. She just wrapped her arms around me and held me close, telling me that it was going to be okay. It was a little weird since I was used to being strong for her sake and now here she was comforting me while I cried. It felt different too, and I was far too aware of my breasts being squeezed against my chest as she held me close.

I think the weirdest thing though was that I had to actually look up a bit to look her in the eyes when we finally separated. When I was a guy I stood at six foot even and had a good seven inches on her, if you didn’t count her ears. Now though I figured that I was probably about five foot four, though I guess it wasn’t surprising that I had lost height if they seriously expected Jess’s clothes to fit me.

Nothing really fit properly though, as I discovered while I got dressed. Jessica hadn’t even bothered with a bra, which I couldn’t be happier about since I didn’t think I was ready for that yet, but the thong panties she had brought were uncomfortably tight around my wider hips. The pale blue satin dress was too tight in the hips and across the chest, it barely covered my upper thighs, and without a bra, it wasn’t hiding anything with the amount of cleavage it was showing and my nipples poking through the fabric.

Jessica sighed and rolled her eyes when she saw the fit. “That’s the only thing I have that I thought might fit you in the chest, I usually wear a pushup bra and inserts with that and you still look like you’re gonna explode out of it. I’d offer a sweater but there’s no way that you’re going to be able to wear my jeans or skirts with your wider hips.”

Since it was the best option that we had we were forced to go with it and finish dressing me. The black leather ankle boots and matching jacket weren’t too bad. The boots were a size too large but some wool socks fixed that, and the jacket fit okay so long as I didn’t try to zip it up. Overall, the clothes were physically and mentally uncomfortable though and it took every ounce of willpower that I had to not just tear them off again.

Besides the discomfort, I think the worst part was that my hair kept getting in the way and with it being so long I had trouble extracting it from the back of the dress. Seriously, it was down to the middle of my thighs and Jessica had to braid it for me to keep it out of the way, which of course seemed to take forever with its length. While she was doing that, Aunt Merry went inside to grab our bags, well their bags since I couldn’t wear anything that I’d brought and leaving them there would just add to the mystery when I vanished.

It was just as she finished bringing out the bags and the keys for the truck that was parked behind the cabin when the scent of brimstone heralded the arrival of a Demon. Merriwynd reacted nearly instantly, drawing her gun as she whirled around to point it at our visitor. “Thank goodness that I got here before they di… Whoa! Cool it down a second! I’m not here to hurt you! I’m here to fucking warn you!” Surie Rourke offered as she raised her hands from where she sat atop my Kawasaki ZX-10R with a large duffel bag over her shoulder.

“Surie?” Jessica asked in the stunned silence that followed.

“Yeah. At least your bodyguard seems alert. Who’s the hottie? And where’s the kid? You all need to get out of here fast, it seems that the PDA forgot rule seven when dealing with Paranormal threats and we have trouble on the way. Chief Little sent me to deliver these and to tell you to take the truck and disappear.” Surie removed the duffel from her shoulder and tossed it to Jessica. “Go wake the kid up, get him in the truck, and get out of here before company arrives.”

Surie didn’t wait for us to reply, though she did give me a long once-over with her eyes as she started wheeling my bike through the snow and toward the rear of the cabin. Did she somehow realize that I had Manifested? I hadn’t noticed before what a nice ass she had under those skintight leather pants and as she walked away I could feel the fire in my loins igniting once again. Oh my God, I needed to get laid so bad right now. Between Surie’s presence giving me someone that would be an acceptable target for my now desperate libido and trying to fight the urge to just rip my uncomfortable clothes off I wasn’t exactly able to concentrate on my surroundings.

I was snapped out of it by gunshots, snapping my head in the direction of the sound to see Merriwynd holding her gun and something shadowy falling from the night sky. She wasted no time in holstering her gun and drawing her swords to decapitate the creature. “Kadduran,” she spat distastefully. “One down, seven to go. We need to take them out or they’ll just follow us.”

Have you ever seen those stone gargoyles on those old gothic cathedrals and buildings? Well, they were placed there to frighten away evil. I guess that the thought was if you’re going to keep Demons and shit out then what better way than making it look like one of the nastiest creatures of Demonkind is on the building watching. So they based the appearance of the gargoyles on the Kadduran, and trust me their reputation is well deserved. They travel in packs, have hard leathery skin and razor-sharp claws, can heal almost instantly from most wounds, and delight in ripping their victims to shreds.

Jessica and I were staring at our protector, and we weren’t alone. “How did you…” Surie began to ask, her mouth agape as she let my bike drop to the ground. I wasn’t quite sure whether she meant how Merriwynd was able to sense them, shoot one down in the dark, or how she had managed to take one down so quickly.

“I could feel them on the wind and I have good night vision. I was expecting Demons so I had my bullets and weapons enchanted with Divine magic before coming here. Make yourself useful, protect the girls and keep those things away from the cabin.” I was wondering why she had added that last part but then I realized that Surie thought that I was still in the cabin asleep or something and Aunt Merry wanted to keep her and our opponents thinking that.

Aunt Merry managed to fell another pair of the creatures but she was out of bullets now and three of the creatures were swarming her, swooping in to hit and run too quickly for even her Fey speed and reflexes to do much more than get the odd strike in with a sword as they got in close. Those cuts seemed to be slowing the creatures down but Merriwynd was taking her share of cuts too. It was as I watched, wishing that I could do something useful that I thought, “Wait, she said there were seven left, so where are the other two?”

Jessica screamed as one of them swooped toward us and I panicked, scrambling to shield her with my body as a veritable barrage of icicles erupted from the snow in front of us to impale the creature and shred its wings. It was stuck with us on ground level now but I could already see its wounds starting to heal. Surie grinned at me. “Nice! So you’re not just another pretty face.” I could feel my cheeks flush as the half-Demon vanished in a puff of brimstone and saw that the last of the unaccounted Kadduran was flying straight at us to support its injured packmate, only to fly headlong into a wall of ice that rose from the snow between us as I panicked once again.

The injured Kadduran was shuffling its way to us through the snow while its buddy was still trying to shake off its encounter with the ice wall. That was when Surie appeared again, accompanied by the scent of sulfur. She waited a moment, letting it get a little closer before holding out a hand, giving the Kadduran a long look, and saying, “Hey, douchebag, rule seven.”

It stopped uncertainly, confusion written all over its face as its gravelly voice inquired, “Rule ssseven?”

“Always look up,” Surie replied with a grin as my motorbike fell from the sky to crash on top of the creature.

I just stared as she drew a knife and decapitated the creature, having something else on my mind. “My bike! Oookay, maybe it’s not so bad, I mean, maybe the Kadduran and the snow cushioned the fall. I can probably still fix it.”

I tried to get control of my breathing and reassure myself that it wasn’t something that couldn’t be fixed when Surie grabbed the bike by the rear suspension and hurled it one-handed at the other Kadduran, who had shaken off its crash and was flying toward us. Before I could even gasp in surprise she had drawn possibly the biggest handgun that I had ever or likely would ever see. She probably needed her enhanced strength just to hold that thing one-handed. A shot rang out a second before my bike exploded as it hit the approaching Kadduran. I fell to my knees, staring in shock and abject horror at the fate of my motorcycle as the flames from the explosion seemed to take on a mind of their own, engulfing the Kadduran.

The flames pulled themselves into a rough ball shape that came to rest in Surie’s hand as she used the other hand to point her gun at the charred, but still living, Kadduran and pulled the trigger. Its head exploded and she turned from the headless corpse to grin at us. “Regenerate from that, bitch! Now that is why armor piercing high explosive/incendiary rounds are worth the money. We’re lucky though, Kadduran are one of the few types of Demons that aren’t fireproof.” The fireball shot from her hand, nailing the last of the remaining Kadduran and sending it screaming to the ground where Merriwynd quickly finished it off.

I was still kneeling in the snow, staring at the blackened remains of my bike in shock and trying my best not to cry when I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, are you okay, Cutie?” Surie asked. “It’s understandable to be in shock if you’ve never been in a fight like this before but, for what it’s worth, I think that you did pretty well for yourself. How long have you been training with your Ice magic?”

“Umm… not very long,” I replied uncertainly. Okay, not at all, it was all a big fluke from me panicking, but she didn’t need to know that. “I… uhhh… only Manifested recently and it was a bit of a surprise.”

Surie nodded sadly and squeezed my shoulder reassuringly as a dark expression settled over her face. “Yeah, it can be tough when it’s a surprise like that. I never knew about my parentage and I grew up moving from foster home to foster home. My mother killed herself not long after I was born and I guess nobody else in her family would take me because… when I was conceived… it wasn’t exactly consensual. I Manifested when I was fourteen, and since I knew that my foster parents would freak if they saw me I ran away had to figure out most of it myself. I wandered the alleys and dark places of Vancouver for a few months before another Paranormal found me and helped me figure out what I am. He taught me how to use my abilities, survive, and make a living. I’ve been on my own and working as a cleaner ever since, so almost six years now.”

“I’m sorry,” I said uncertainly. I felt kind of horrible thinking about how bad I had it when it looked like her life had been much worse. At least I had a family that cared about me. And I may have lost my Dad, but I still had Jess and apparently Aunt Merry and my mother now too.

She shrugged dismissively but I could still see a haunted look in her eyes. “Hey, I survived. People like you and me, we’re survivors.” Then in a quick and very obvious change of subject, she asked, “So, Cutie, how’d you fall in with those two and the kid? Do you have any plans once they’ve gone off to wherever it is they’re going to disappear to?”

Was she flirting with me? I bit my lip and clamped my thighs together as I took a deep breath and tried to think of baseball. Okay, so maybe that wasn’t the best idea with all those guys in those tight uniform pants. Nope, no sex. I was totally not ready to take that plunge as a girl. I was expecting to have my first sexual experience on the other side of the gender fence and I was not ready to try and wrap my mind around my first time, and every time after, being as a female participant.

I realized that I had yet to answer her questions and shrugged. “I’m probably going with them, I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Oh! You and the kid huh?” Surie said with a sly smile as her eyes widened in surprise. For a moment I thought that she was on to me but then she winked. “He is kind of cute, not really my type though. So, is that why he’s in the cabin? Did you wear him out already?”

“I never! I wouldn’t!” I sputtered. My face was burning in embarrassment and I quickly looked away. My eyes fell once again on the charred remains of my bike and I couldn’t help but remember who was responsible for its destruction. Just when it looked like I would be able to keep that piece of my dad it was all destroyed. I couldn’t believe the nerve of her. First, she destroys my bike and she had been flirting with me since. I shrugged her hand off my shoulder and turned on my heel, telling her coldly. “It’s none of your business. I’m going to go check on Merriwynd, she might need first aid.”

I stomped my way through the snow over to Jessica and my Fey aunt. Jess was looking her over and she looked concerned as she turned to look up at my approach and whispered. “Some of these cuts are pretty deep and she’s bleeding bad, she might need stitches. We should get her to a hospital.”

“I’m fine,” Merriwynd objected, “just bandage me up and we can get going.”

As she was saying that I shook my head and insisted in a quiet tone, “No hospitals. I don’t trust them, not after the way they fucked up with Dad.” I looked over her and reached out to tenderly touch one of the worst gashes a deep one that ran nearly the whole length of her upper arm. “This is bad, I… don’t know enough first aid to deal with something like this.”

It wasn’t even the worst of the wounds and Jess was barely staunching the bleeding of those. Jess was trying not to freak out, but her frantically twitching ears gave her away. I was suddenly scared that I was going to lose Aunt Merry, just like we’d lost Dad and I had to close my eyes against the tears that threatened to make themselves known.

I felt a warmth in my hands and I heard a gasp. When I opened my eyes Jess and Aunt Merry were staring at my hands, which were giving off a pale white glow as they rested on Merriwynd’s arm. I thought that I could see her wounds healing before my eyes, but my vision was fuzzy from the tears and getting fuzzier as a wave of exhaustion hit me and I damn near collapsed as the glow faded.

“You… that was Divine magic… you’re a Snow Nymph, you shouldn’t be able to…” Aunt Merry sputtered in wide-eyed astonishment as she removed a blood-soaked bandage to gaze at what was now little more than a scratch. Then she gave Jess and me both a serious look and whispered, “Tell nobody about this until we get to your mother. We can’t risk…”

She quickly cut off whatever she was going to say as I heard snow crunching behind me and I turned to see Surie approaching. “Hey, is everything okay here?” the half-Demon inquired.

“She’s fine,” I said coldly, still pissed at her about my bike.

“Yeah, it’s fine. We just thought that she was injured worse than she was, we should be able to head off any time once we finish bandaging her wounds and she changes clothes,” Jessica said casually, like the most shocking thing ever didn’t just happen. It was a shame that she couldn’t get any Human roles because that was Oscar-worthy.

Surie knelt beside me in the snow looking confused. “Did I say something to offend you? I’m sorry if my teasing pissed you off, it’s none of my business who you have sex with.”

I wasn’t upset because she assumed that I was screwing myself, I knew that as a Nymph I was probably going to hear worse things. What pissed me off was that she had destroyed my bike and she didn’t seem to have any idea just how much that hurt me. Not helping my mood was the fact that in addition to being sexually frustrated, I was now starving and exhausted as well. So I wasn’t really thinking clearly when I snapped, “I’m pissed because you destroyed my bike! Do you have any idea how much work Dad and I put into that?! It was the last gift that he gave me before he…”

As I broke down in a sobbing mess Surie winced. “I was trying to keep you both alive using what I had at hand. Those things were too fast for me to shoot at in the dark without wasting ammo, I don’t have night vision, there was no fire available for me to control, and my regeneration isn’t as good as theirs for a close-up fight. I wasn’t really thinking beyond killing those things, and I… uh… might have been showing off a little for you. I… Chief Little said that was the kid’s bike.” She looked a bit confused as she said the last.

“Stop calling me a kid!” I snapped, wiping at my tears.

I think that we all realized what I said at the same time. I could see Jess and Aunt Merry trying not to give anything away, but they both still winced when we witnessed the light bulb moment as Surie put the pieces together and sputtered, “Wait, you’re…”

Oh shit.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 4 of A Cold Fey In Hell. I'll be continuing to post chapters weekly but if you want to read more there are further chapters there available to the public on my Patreon page. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 4: Cold Front

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,

Demons have discovered that Seth’s death has been faked and there is the possibility that they could track you to the safe house. You need to disappear and let your mother’s friend take you to wherever it is that you need to go. It’s probably better if not even I know where that is. I’ve sent Surie to help in case the Demons get there first since she’s good in a fight and she’s been burned and needs to leave town and establish a new identity as well. I’m sending Seth’s motorbike and $200,000 in cash with her as well. The hospital administrator was eager to settle out of court once they realized just how high in the government your father’s case went. I wish that I could do more, but your mother tells me that you’re in safe hands with her friend.

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?”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 5 of A Cold Fey In Hell just to give my readers a little something until I can get some things written, and in some cases re-written, now that I have the new laptop. Hopefully I will have chapter 11 ready to post on my Patreon page at some point tomorrow for those of you following me there. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 5: Cold Reception

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.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 6 of A Cold Fey In Hell. I decided to post it after midnight since I'm going to try to catch up on lost sleep and I'm not sure when I'd be able to get on to do it. Hopefully I will have chapter 12 is now posted on my Patreon page as well for those of you following me there. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 6: Musical Names

It was a long and awkward moment after Merriwynd knocked on the farmhouse door that it was opened, and once it was I was immediately attacked. I barely saw it coming and had no time to react before the woman who had answered the door squealed in delight and practically flew past Aunt Merry to half tackle me as she wrapped me up in a hug. For a moment all that I could do was stand there in stunned awe and confusion as this stranger held me tight and refused to let go.

Finally, I was released as the woman pulled back, keeping her hands firmly on my shoulders as she looked me over, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Oh! My baby! Just look at you! You’re all grown up, and a Snow Nymph! You’re so beautiful!” It was as she gushed at me that I realized who this must be. It was my mother. I took a moment to drink in the appearance of this stranger who had given birth to me and then sent me and my dad away so that I would be safe.

She was beautiful, her face appearing much like the one that I had yet to get used to seeing in the mirror, right down to the pointed ears. She looked a few years older but the family resemblance was obvious, making her look almost like an older sister. Where my hair was a stark white, the long wavy locks that cascaded down to her waist were an aquamarine hue and her eyes were a bright azure, darker than the pale ice blue of my own. She had a killer body with an hourglass figure and she wore clothes to show off that body, a skintight sea-green silk halter top that flaunted firm breasts slightly larger than my own and a short black leather miniskirt and three-inch stiletto heels that displayed her long and shapely legs.

I found myself unable to speak as I looked her over, not knowing quite what to say. My heart was pounding like a jackhammer in my chest as my throat tightened and for some reason I found myself fighting back tears. Was it because of my new girl body and all of those hormones, everything that had happened since I got the call about Dad being in the hospital suddenly catching up with me, or a combination of both?

Whatever the cause, I couldn’t hold those tears back and I found myself suddenly bawling and sniffling as I hesitantly stammered, “M… Mom?”

She merely nodded her head, her own eyes filled with tears, and then she wrapped me up in her arms once again. She held me for a time, stroking my hair and making soothing and comforting sounds as we both cried. Finally, she spoke softly in my ear, “Shhh, everything is going to be okay, my little snowflake. You’re here with me now and I’m not going to let anything happen to you or your sister.”

When she finally pulled away, giving me a tender kiss on the forehead, I noticed that the others were trying to give us some space on the porch. Mom surprised me then, and probably Jessica too, by reaching out to embrace her as well. Once she had given Jessica a similar kiss on the forehead she stepped back to look over the Púca. “Jessica, it’s good to finally meet you as well. Dairen was so proud of both you and Seth in his letters and it feels like I’ve gained two daughters today.”

Jessica flushed but I could see the relief written all over her face. She had been so afraid that my mother wouldn’t accept her and take her in and that we might not see one another again. She broke down in tears too as all the stress of our situation over the last couple of days caught up with her. Mom just held her too until she had cried herself out. “Th…thanks Mrs…” Jess started to say before realizing that she wasn’t sure how to address my mother.

“Shush, none of that, you and Crystal can both call me Mom,” my mother clarified. “In fact, it’s probably best that you do with the new identities that Jimmy is working on for you.”

“Yeah, I kinda thought that’s why we were here, not to meet you,” I commented before quickly adding, “not that meeting you was bad. It was just a bit of a surprise.”

Mom smiled at me and replied, “I was going to wait for you to come home, but I couldn’t wait any longer to see you. So I came here to help Jimmy with your new identities and giving you a general background that will pass PDA scrutiny. Besides, I wanted to meet this half-Demon girl who has been accompanying you before deciding whether it’s safe for her to know where we live.” She turned to give Brianna a long and wary look.

Brianna shrugged and nodded her head. “I would probably feel the same in your place. I can… leave now that I know everyone has gotten here safely. I’m used to making my own way.” I barely noticed her slight hesitation as her eyes turned ever so briefly to look at me.

My mother seemed to notice as well and, though she looked like she was still feeling cautious, I thought I could see her resisting a smile as the corners of her lips twitched slightly upward. “I am not asking you to leave, I only wish to have a conversation with you. A conversation where only the truth can be spoken.”

“A truth spell,” Brianna guessed. She seemed uncertain, but not totally against the idea.

“Yes,” my mother agreed. “You are a Paranormal, so you would have to consent for the spell to work properly. I just want to get a better idea of who you are. In return, once I am satisfied that you mean us no harm, I will allow you to ask me two questions. I am sure that you know how difficult it is for my kind to lie.”

“Difficult, but not impossible,” Brianna countered as she turned to look at Aunt Merry.

“I swear that if I am satisfied with your intent and allow those two questions, that I will answer them completely truthfully and I will not try to deceive you in any way,” Mom promised. I could feel the tingling of magic as she was bound by that oath.

Brianna was still looking at Merry uncertainly when I told her, “Fey are bound to oaths, Brianna. There is no way for her to escape that promise now that it has been given, except if you mean us harm and she doesn’t have to allow you those questions.”

The moment that the words, “I consent,” passed from between Brianna’s lips I could sense my mother’s spell being cast and taking hold. Brianna apparently felt it taking hold as well because her eyes widened slightly and she sighed. “Let’s get this interrogation over with.”

“Let’s start with something simple, what is your name?” my mother began.

Brianna flushed slightly as she muttered, “Melody Brianna Sòng. I usually go by Brianna when I’m not using another name for work though. I got teased in school a lot about my name before I Manifested and ran away.”

“I kinda like the name Melody, it’s pretty and it suits you.” I blushed brightly as I realized that I had said that aloud.

Brianna’s blush deepened and I looked away, determined to keep my mouth shut until they were finished. Mom asked about her childhood, whether she had any connections to the Demons hunting me, what kind of work she did, and whether she was using us to try to get her hands on a Muse. Except for her actual name, Brianna had been really honest with us it seemed and she had no interest in Muses except general curiosity.

Finally, Mom asked, “If it’s not finding a Muse, what brought you here? You could have left them and found a safe place for yourself easily with your background.”

Brianna sighed and replied, “There are two reasons. First, I don’t like to leave things unfinished and I wanted to keep the girls safe. Second, I like them… especially Crystal. I… from the moment I first saw her at the safe house I haven’t been able to get her out of my head.”

I felt myself blushing again. I shouldn’t have been surprised since I was a Nymph now and I knew exactly how hot I was. She had been showing off for me a lot during the fight at the safe house. Hell, I’d want to fuck my brains out too. Mom seemed to be thinking along the same lines as she asked, “And what exactly is my daughter to you? A conquest? A notch on the bedpost?”

“No!” the half Demon shouted, her face bright red. “Yeah, there’s attraction, a lot of attraction, and I’d love to find myself sharing a bed with her. I don’t want to push anything because I know how hard everything has been on her and she has a lot of adjusting to do. There’s more than just that though. I… I never believed in love at first sight until I saw her. The more time we spend together the more I like her as a person, and I want to keep her safe.”

My heart fluttered wildly, my breath caught in my throat, and I think that I may have been blushing even worse than Brianna was. I wasn’t really sure how to take what she had just said, especially since I knew that she was telling the truth. The whole attraction thing wasn’t a big surprise, but knowing that there was more than that made me feel both elated and extremely self-conscious. Then the elation itself made me feel even more self-conscious, not to mention confused, as I wondered why I should be so happy that she was interested in me, at least for more than just sex.

Unsurprisingly that just got me thinking about sex again and since Brianna was the subject of those thoughts, and the only one nearby who I didn’t see as a relative, I found myself watching her. I bit my lip and brought my thighs tightly together, absently twirling a strand of my long white hair around my finger as I tried to keep myself under control. Jess elbowed me and when I turned to look at her she rolled her eyes and whispered, “Being obvious much? Control yourself, Crystal. Never show that you’re interested, make her work for it. Just be cool, it should come easy for you as a Snow Nymph.”

I frowned and clenched my fists. I was just surprised by her admission and horny dammit, which shouldn’t have been surprising to anyone since I had been fighting with that for almost two full days by this time and had no release yet. I had been half ready to fuck Grundle the Gnome into a coma. I just might have if I hadn’t been so distracted by the excitement of driving Dad’s old Charger, driving down the backroad, and then finding so much snow at the farmhouse.

How could Jessica think that I could possibly be interested in Brianna that way? She should know me better than that. Sure I was growing to like Brianna as I got to know her. She was kind of hot, she could be sweet at times, and she was protecting us but she was also impulsive, reckless, and I was still kind of pissed at her over my bike. I crossed my arms in a huff, not even dignifying my sister’s comment with a reply.

I was fuming so much that I barely noticed my mother asking the half Demon, “And what are your plans now?”

My heart skipped a beat, my eyes widened a bit, and my ears twitched as I leaned forward to listen and Jess elbowed me again. “I told you, don’t be so obvious. You have so much to learn about being a girl,” she whispered.

I crossed my arms under my breasts and turned to glare at my sister as Brianna answered my mother’s latest question. “I’m not sure. I just wanted to get them here safely and I didn’t really think too deeply about what would happen after that. My job is done so I should probably leave. I guess that I could go back to what I was doing before in a different city. I’m not really qualified for much else.”

For some strange reason my heart fell at that and I firmly kept myself from looking at Brianna, snorting indignantly and clenching my fists as I turned away. “Did you misplace your brain when you Manifested?” Jessica hissed in my ear. “I told you not to be so obvious. Geeze, you’ve got it bad.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whispered back, keeping careful control of my voice. “I was just worried because unlike us, she has no place to go now. If she wants to leave anyway, that’s her decision. Why should I give a shit if she decides that she doesn’t want to stick around? It’s not my problem.”

Jessica rolled her eyes and muttered, “You can be so thickheaded sometimes.”

During our exchange, my mother was looking very thoughtful. Suddenly I felt the magic of the truth spell dissipate and Mom turned toward Aunt Merry to ask, “What do you think?”

Merriwynd looked pensive for a moment before nodding her head. “She already knows about your secret, or at the very least suspects, but she seems a good sort and she pulled our asses out of the fire at Mitchell’s place. We could use an extra bouncer since Arand left. I would have to train her to fight without relying on a gun, brute force, or Fire magic, but I was thinking of giving Jessica some more lessons anyway and I could train them together.”

“Wha…” Brianna began to ask in confusion.

“We’re offering you a job and a place to live,” my mother cut her off to explain. “You can handle yourself in a fight and Merry has been after us to hire a second bouncer for a while. You would work and train with her on a schedule that she will determine, and accompany the girls when they go out on their own to ensure their safety. Merry looks just a little too old to be hanging around with a pair of teenage girls all of the time.”

I looked toward the conversation with renewed interest and a smile, my heart pounding as I waited to hear Brianna’s response. “You’re hopeless,” Jessica muttered beside me.

I barely paid attention to my sister as Brianna looked from Aunt Merry to my mother in stunned silence. The look on her face was hopeful, but as if she were waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Ummm… why?” she asked.

My mother smiled. “That counts as the first of the two questions that I promised you. You and the girls are familiar with one another, you seem to get along, and your desire to keep them safe is genuine. Also, despite your difficult childhood and living on the streets, you seem to be a good person and don’t want to see others used or mistreated. I believe that you deserve the opportunity. What is your second question?”

“Are you really a Muse?” the half Demon asked without hesitation. I could tell that the curiosity was killing her.

“Yes. My only elemental alignment is to the Divine element, though being aligned to the Divine allows me to use the magic of the other elements, except for Death, to a limited degree. Any Nymph who is aligned to the Divine element is a Muse, even if it isn’t their primary element,” she explained with a look in my direction. “My current identity is a River Nymph though, which is why I magically alter my hair color every day to what it is now. A Nymph’s hair color is a reflection of their elemental alignment and, just like Snow Nymphs have white hair, Muses usually have golden hair.”

“And you think that if people find out the truth about you that they might try using Crystal and Jessica against you, like that jackass Mitchell and his pals?” Brianna asked with a frown.

“Yes, which is why we have to keep my true nature, and Crystal’s, a secret,” my mother agreed stoically. “Only Jimmy, Grundle, my partner, and those gathered here know what I really am and we must keep Crystal’s dual alignment a secret as well. Though some people might try to go after Crystal just because she’s a Nymph too, it’s rare to find one of us who can spend much time in a city. This is why the girls will need a capable and dedicated bodyguard.”

“I’ll take the job,” Brianna said with a grim expression and a quick glance in my direction. “Your secrets are safe with me, Ma’am.”

“Please, Brianna, call me Tiffani. Now, let’s go inside and introduce you all to Jimmy,” Mom said with a smile. I almost didn’t notice her sigh of relief because I was so happy that Brianna was going to be staying. You know, because I didn’t want her living on the streets, or on the run, or something.

~ * ~

Jimmy was a tall and handsome man of African descent. He was muscular with deep brown eyes, dark chocolate skin, a shaved head, and a well-maintained goatee. I was expecting some old hermit, not a delicious-looking piece of chocolate beefcake like him. I probably would have jumped him right there if my mother hadn’t whispered, “Calm down, Crystal. You’re not going to get anywhere with him, he’s gay.”

I was so disappointed. I really needed to get laid soon. Luckily by this time I was starting to get used to finding guys attractive, so my spike of desire when I first saw Jimmy wasn’t too unexpected, or even unwelcome. The first time that I had started noticing that I was attracted to guys at the hotel in Vancouver I kind of freaked out a bit. Well, I wasn’t just attracted to guys, like all Nymphs I’m now pansexual and that took some getting used to.

After the introductions had been made, Jimmy made sure that we were all comfortable in his living room and then explained, “I’m a psychic and I work with the PDA office in Edmonton. Most of my work consists of what I’m doing for you, helping people to change legal documents or create new identities after Manifesting in unexpected ways. Usually, that includes registering them with the PDA for support and services as well, but in cases like yours that can be dangerous because that change, your former identity, and the reason that the change was required is kept in the client’s PDA file, allowing anyone working with the PDA to access that information.”

After giving us a moment to absorb that information he continued speaking. “In the case of, say… a Muse or an innocent person with a price on their head that could be dangerous. The people who work at the PDA are generally good people but they are people, so there is always the chance of greed or lapses of judgment. So, in cases like that, I use my contacts and skills to create new identities under the table, without registering them with the PDA or doing any of the official paperwork. That way, when you do register with the PDA the only information in your file will be the identity that I’ve given you, and both you and your secrets will be safe.”

With his explanation complete he took a long look at Jessica and asked, “Are your two forms static, or can you change your features? Can you look the same every time you become human?”

Jessica shrugged. “Technically, my bunny form is my real form, so it’s always the same. I don’t really have a set human form, though I play with various looks. I have trouble with my ears, tail, and eye and hair color, but other than those and having to be female I can look however I want. The more often I use a specific look the more comfortable it becomes and the easier it is for me to shift to it without consciously imagining the features I want. I’ve been using this form for about six months except for when I made myself look like Crystal to go clothes shopping for her.”

“So, except for the ears and such, you could make yourself look like Crystal’s twin then?” Jimmy pressed.

“Yeah, it helps that we both have white hair,” my sister replied with another shrug. Then her brow furrowed in concentration for a moment before her facial features began to shift to demonstrate her point. With her ears still covered and her contacts in she looked just like me except for slightly darker blue eyes, though she had kept her body shape the same. “I could have copied her body shape too, but my clothes would have been way too tight in places.”

“Perfect,” Jimmy said with a grin. “I was worried about Tiffani wanting you to be sisters with you looking so close in age but you could easily be twins. How old are you both?”

“We don’t know for sure about Jess, but we think that she’s roughly the same age as me, or maybe a little older, and I recently turned eighteen,” I provided.

“You look sixteen or seventeen but with you both being Fey the PDA should believe that you’re older than you look. I could make you eighteen unless you’d like to be a bit younger,” the handsome psychic said thoughtfully.

“And have to go through an extra year or two of school? No fucking way,” I grumbled. “We just became adults, we don’t want to be kids again.”

With that decision, Jimmy took Brianna and me to another room with a camera where he took pictures of us for our driver’s licenses. He took two of me so he could use one for Jessica’s license as well. You’re not allowed to wear hats and stuff for official government photos and her ears would have been a problem. My ears were easier to cover with my hair fluffed just right.

We spent a few hours getting everything sorted out, and he gave us temporary fake IDs until the real ones could be rushed to us in a few days. Apparently, his government contacts were used to doing this kind of thing for him and the PDA in general. I just stared at my new birth certificate and sighed. I couldn’t believe that Mom spelled Tiffani with an ‘I’ at the end, and our last name was so embarrassing.

Jessica and I were now twins born to Tiffani Cummings, though our eighteenth birthdays wouldn’t be until the first week of January. My new name was Crystal Lumi Cummings and Jess’s was Jessica Marie Cummings. Jess’s name didn’t sound too bad but Mom and I both had names that made us sound like strippers. At least she didn’t have Jimmy spell Crystal with a ‘K‘.

I was curious about my new middle name though. After I asked, Mom told me that it was the perfect name for me. In Finnish it means snow, but the same name in Italian or Spanish means ‘to shine’ and is synonymous with light. I decided that my mother was right, it suited me and I liked it.

The background that Jimmy and Mom came up with was that Mom and our father, who was a Púca, had a messy divorce when we were seven and split up. Mom had moved to Edmonton to start a business with a friend while our father, Richard, had custody of us in Calgary until he died in a tragic apartment fire a week ago. While we were practically identical in appearance, Jessica had taken after our father and Manifested at thirteen while I took after Mom’s side of the family and had only recently Manifested on a ski trip, which was why Jess and I weren’t home to get caught in the fire. It was close-ish to the truth and Jessica was planning on us both practicing a lot together to get into our new ‘roles’.

I had to give Jimmy credit though, he had all of the bases covered. A lot of what he did was changing computer records in government databases or adding new ones but he had put together a complete background for not only us but our fake father as well for us to memorize. There were school records, immunization records, medical histories, and marriage, change of name, and divorce records for Mom. He had even sent an obituary to the Calgary Herald and somehow paid off a coroner with connections to the PDA to ‘identify’ a previously unidentifiable body in a Calgary fire last week as Richard Cummings, father of two.

Jimmy had also been kind enough to create paper trail, including a bill of sale and several false previous owners with registered paperwork of their own, to change the registration for Dad’s old Charger to my new name and address. I would have to go pick up the plates and buy insurance soon though. He was certain that our identities, documents, and even our temporary fake IDs would pass government scrutiny should we encounter the police, need to start a bank account, or register with the PDA. Mom had yet to do the latter but there were reasons that it could be a good idea for all of us.

It turned out that Brianna was going to need a new identity too. Jimmy didn’t have any government contacts or user access in British Columbia so he wouldn’t be able to get in and change any of her records, at least not easily. She was also twenty years old but Mom wanted her to be seventeen or eighteen so that she could go to school with Jessica and me and watch over us there.

I was not happy about having to go to school when Jessica and I were both used to homeschooling but Mom said that this was a private school for Paranormals, where we could all learn to control our abilities and magic in addition to the normal lessons. Brianna was just as unhappy about that prospect as Jessica and I were since she had been forced to drop out of school when she Manifested at fourteen. She was not looking forward to having to study for the entrance exams that we would have to take in January.

She had promised to take the job though so she was determined to do it. At least she didn’t have to remember a whole new life and completely change her name. Jimmy managed to create a similar background to her real life, just in a different city. Brianna’s new identity had just turned eighteen, her mother died when she was a baby so she didn’t know much about her, and she grew up in foster care up until the point that she had Manifested and ran away. Now, after over three years of living on the streets, she had been offered a job and a place to live and was going to be starting school again too.

Jimmy was able to insert her into the provincial foster care records as well as creating her birth certificate and other documents and records but before starting he had suggested that she change either her middle or first name, at the very least. I think that all of us were expecting her to change her first name to Brianna now that she had the chance to essentially start her life over with a name she was comfortable with. To my surprise though, after a long and thoughtful look in my direction, her cheeks flushed and she said, “Let’s go with Melody Alanna Sòng.”

I found myself smiling and my heart fluttered. As much as her playing musical names was starting to get annoying, she did need a new identity and I liked that name. It was pretty, it suited her. While she and Jimmy worked out the details Jessica dragged me off to borrow the only other set of clothes that I had at the moment so she could change into my new twin. I would have happily given her the clothes that I was wearing, mostly because wearing them was driving me crazy, but Mom, who hadn’t let us out of her sight since we arrived, thought it best that we both wore clothes for the drive home.

It was starting to get dark, so as soon as Brianna… err Melody was done with Jimmy we all piled into the Charger with Mom. Mom ran her fingers over the roof of the car before stepping inside and sighed. “Your father was driving this when we first met. I’m glad that you were able to reclaim it, my little snowflake.” She cast a quick illusion to make it look like the car had license plates with proper insurance stickers and then she climbed into the front passenger seat to give me directions while Aunt Merry, Jessica, and Bri… Melody sat in the back. It was a pretty name, but it was going to take a little while before I could get used to calling the half Demon that.

I started the engine and turned the knob on the radio until I reached a radio station. It turned out to be an oldies station and as we drove into the night the sounds of Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas filled the car. It was so ironic, and yet so appropriate, that it brought a smile to my face. I think that Mom felt the same because when she looked at me she was smiling and I thought that I could see tears in her eyes as she said, “Let’s get you girls home.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 7 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 7: Homecoming

It took us almost an hour to drive to Edmonton, making our way down a gravel road and then a major highway past snow-covered farmlands. Once in the city, Mom guided me through the streets to the river valley and then to an apartment building that backed onto the North Saskatchewan River and sat along the southern edge of Capitol City Recreation Park. I figured that living so close to the river was to sell Mom’s River Nymph persona.

Mom had told us on the way that our home served as a business as well. Usually, Paranormal businesses hire Divine magic users to place illusions over the buildings they work out of to make them seem derelict and a spell that keeps the normies from paying too much attention. They barely notice the building and then once they’ve passed they only have a vague idea that they passed the building and forget about it a moment later. I could feel the divine magic at work, both spells seemed to be there and they were very powerful.

I later found out that my mother had cast those spells around the entire building, lawn, and parking lot. Rather than seeing a derelict building normies would completely ignore it. They would walk or drive right by and not see it at all, later thinking that it was just part of the park. Paranormals are more sensitive to magic though and would be completely unaffected by the illusion and see the building for what it was. It seemed to work since they were never bothered by the normies and I had seen the building easily enough.

On the lawn near the street was a sign that had once said Capitol City Apartments, but it had been mostly covered in blue spray-painted graffiti, a star with the letters PNX beneath it. I recognized that graffiti, marks like that were used to let Paranormals know that there was a business that catered to Paranormals inside. The PN stood for ‘paranormal’ while the third letter usually told what kind of business it was. Restaurants, bars, clothing stores, salons, and so on all used different letters, though I couldn’t remember ever seeing one with the letter X before and found myself curious.

I got my answer when I looked at the building itself. From the outside, it looked like a pretty normal three-story brick apartment building, though it had no windows on the first floor at all. There was a pair of sturdy wooden doors with a tall, dark-haired, olive-skinned, and muscular woman standing stoically beside them. She was huge, not just buff but close to seven feet tall if that was a normal doorway. Above that door was a pink and lavender neon sign proclaiming, “Pandora’s Box,” with an outline of a naked woman. It was a strip club.

“Wait! You want us to live in a strip club?!” I sputtered as I pulled up by the curb and stared at the front entrance. First I get a stripper name and now this?!

“We prefer to be called exotic dancers, and we do more than just dance and take our clothes off. Most of us offer sex too when we’re not performing, and we make good money doing it. My partner, Pandora, is a Succubus. For her kind and us Nymphs there’s really no better job,” my mother said with a pleased smile. “It pays well, we have a great medical plan, and we make sure that all of our girls stay clean and healthy with weekly purification spells. We have a Healer on staff and she’s very good with that kind of thing.”

“But you expect us to live here?!” I reiterated.

“Don’t be silly, we live above the club,” Mom said with a roll of her eyes. “I wouldn’t risk your safety. The third floor is our residential area and there are spells and mundane security precautions to prevent anyone who shouldn’t be there from accessing that floor. The second floor has rooms for entertaining clients, and the first floor is the club itself, but you and Jessica won’t be allowed on either of those floors during business hours until you’re officially eighteen in a few weeks.”

I sighed and put the car in gear again. I was going to just find a spot in the parking lot alongside the building but I was instead directed to a secure underground parking garage beneath the building. As I entered the security code that my mother had given me to gain access and drove inside she said, “The outside parking lot is for customers. Those of us who live and work here park in the garage where it’s more secure.”

Aunt Merry quickly added, “The security code that you used to get into the garage is the same one that you’ll have to enter to get to the garage or the third floor by elevator. The emergency exits and doors to the stairwells on the third floor and garage level can only be opened from the inside to prevent any unauthorized access, so you’ll be using the elevator most of the time.”

Only about half of the parking spots in the garage were taken, and Mom directed me to a spot that was fairly close to the elevator, beside a very nice red Jaguar. Besides the garage entrance, the only exits were the elevator, a door to the stairs, and a heavy metal door that we were told led to the boiler room. We all climbed out of the Charger and once we were all in the elevator Mom pressed the button for the third floor, followed by the security code when requested, and everyone was quiet as we ascended.

When the doors finally opened on the third floor I was a bit shocked. I was also pleasantly surprised since I had been expecting it to open onto a hallway leading to perhaps a dozen or fewer apartments. Instead, I saw a comfortable-looking common area with hardwood floors, leather couches, recliners, a couple of beanbag chairs, a 40 inch HD television, a surround sound stereo system, a refrigerator, and a few small round wooden tables with four matching chairs at each.

Stepping off the elevator, I saw two exits near the far right and far left sides of the room. Once Mom and Merry explained that this common area was for everyone’s use, that the fridge was stocked with drinks and snacks, and that we had satellite television and radio and Netflix they led us toward and down the left hallway. There were eight doors on each side of the hall, many of them with nameplates, and I assumed that the other hallway was the same. The doors weren’t as far apart as I would have expected but I found out why when Mom stopped in front of the first door to the left to open it.

The door that my mother had opened led to a fairly simple dorm room rather than the apartment that I had been expecting. It was larger than any bedroom I’d ever been in and boasted both a walk-in closet and a full bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub. The walls were a pale lavender and the floors were still hardwood, which I was grateful for since most carpet is at least made partially from synthetic materials and would have caused allergic reactions in both me and Jess. The room was furnished with a queen-sized bed with nightstands and lamps on both sides, a digital alarm clock, a large dresser, and a vanity.

Once Mom had finished showing us the room she said, “This will be Crystal’s room, while that one is mine.” She pointed to the room across the hall from mine that I assumed bore the name ‘Tiffani’, though I didn’t really look. Then she showed us to Jessica’s which was to the left of mine and Bria… Melody’s which was across the hall from Jess’s. Both my bed and Jess’s had been outfitted with satin sheets and pillowcases, wool blankets, and crocheted comforters that wouldn’t bother our allergies.

Mom and Merriwynd gave both me and Jess big hugs and then Aunt Merry reluctantly said, “We’ll let you girls get settled in and we should have nameplates for your rooms tomorrow. Feel free to make yourselves comfortable in the common room and introduce yourselves to the other kids, they can probably answer any questions that you have.”

“Wait, other kids?” Jessica asked, looking as shocked as I was.

“Yes. Our Healer, one of our dancers, and one of our housekeepers are single mothers, so they and their kids live here too,” Aunt Merry explained. “They’re good kids, two are close to your age and you’ll be going to school with one of them. I’ll send one of the waitresses up with some dinner for the three of you, but we likely won’t see you again until closing, if you’re still awake. Tiffani is due on stage soon and I should do my job and let Annika know that she doesn’t have to double as both doorperson and bouncer anymore.”

After we had been left to our own devices Melody shifted back to her natural half Demon form and teleported off to retrieve our luggage from where she had placed it when she was still known as Brianna. By the time she was done, Jessica had been able to let her ears free and remove her annoying contact lenses and we were able to go through our stuff in my room. Not that there was much that we could use in there.

All of my stuff from when I was Seth had been left in the hotel in Toronto, none of Jess’s stuff would fit since we were going to be doing the twin thing, and Melody had hardly spent any time in her real form until she met us, so most of her clothes had been meant for her taller and less shapely Surie Rourke persona. It became readily apparent that we were all going to need new wardrobes. And since Jessica’s and mine needed to be made from all-natural materials I figured that it was going to cost us a significant chunk of the money that Chief Little had provided us.

I was also going to need car insurance, winter tires, and a security system for the Charger, not to mention gas. That was going to be another sizable chunk of our cash settlement from the hospital. None of us were too happy with the cost but Melody and Jessica had both chosen to go along with this new identity and new look thing knowing that it wasn’t going to be easy. It wasn’t as if we couldn’t afford it with the duffel bag full of cash, and Melody had added almost another twenty grand from a nest egg she had been saving up and had put aside where nobody else could reach it.

When our inventory was complete we found that all that we had that was useful or that we wanted to keep, other than the money and Dad’s old Charger, were the clothes that we were currently wearing, Melody’s massive custom handgun and ammo, the huge shoulder purse that Melody kept God-knows-what in, the few personal items that Jessica and I had kept, and the birthday gifts that Jess and I had yet to unwrap. We had considered waiting until our new birthdays to open those gifts but we decided to open them then and there. The loss of our Dad was still painful and we needed to try to move on and get into our new roles. This would be like pulling the Band-Aid off quickly.

My gift from Dad had of course been my now-destroyed motorcycle while Jessica had gotten me a proper leather jacket to ride it with. It was simple black leather with chrome studs on the shoulders and a diagonal zipper that could be covered with a flap that snapped closed at the neck. Since it was intended to be a bit loose on my larger male frame it was a bit tight in the chest, loose at the waist, and long in the sleeves but still wearable. I now had a jacket, which was deeply ironic since I never get cold.

I had gotten Jessica a pair of fuzzy pink wool bunny slippers and her present from Dad had been a box with two items inside. The first was one of those custom trophies, made to look like an Oscar with rabbit ears. The base was engraved with the words, “Best Supporting Bunny. Never give up on your dreams.” The second item was a delicate gold charm bracelet with bunny, heart, and fairy charms attached.

My sister and I held each other tight, trying to comfort one another as we both cried out what tears we had left for Dad and she tightly clutched the trophy in her arms. I didn’t try to tell her that it would be okay because I wasn’t too sure about that myself anymore. Everything had turned upside down and nothing in our lives was the same anymore. I knew that Mom and Aunt Merry would take care of us but everything seemed so overwhelming. It was like this new life was quicksand, and no matter what we tried to do we just kept sinking in deeper. Instead, I whispered, “I love you, Sis. I’ll be by your side no matter what and I won’t let anything keep us apart.”

Melody had given us some privacy during this time but I think that she was waiting outside my door because after Jess and I had managed to collect ourselves there was a tentative knock on the doorframe. She had left the door open when she left us since pretty much every room in this building seemed to be soundproofed. I appreciated that since I was going to have enough problems keeping my mind off sex without the possibility of hearing people going at it in whatever room was beneath mine on the second floor.

“Someone brought up a late dinner for us if you’re hungry,” the half Demon offered as she stepped inside. “It’s in the common room.”

I wasn’t just hungry, I was starving and I figured that Jess was probably feeling the same since we hadn’t eaten since the flight from Vancouver to Toronto. I wasn’t sure how long ago that actually was with all the time zone jumping and our very long day and I was too tired to try to figure it out, or even really care. Suffice to say it had been far too long. “Let’s go eat, Jess,” I said as I helped her off the bed and to her feet.

Jessica carefully put on her new charm bracelet and dropped off her slippers and trophy (which for some reason she insisted on calling a Harvey rather than an Oscar) in her room and then we headed to the common room to eat. I guessed that Merriwynd had suggested what they brought up for us since the meals were well suited to our tastes. I figured that the club must have a decent kitchen in addition to the bar because the food was pretty good.

I watched in undisguised jealousy as Melody ate a double cheeseburger and fries. Most Fey and Fey cousins don’t eat much red meat if any, and I had discovered when eating room service in the hotel in Vancouver that that included Nymphs. I had tried eating a steak and while it was delicious I could only manage to eat half a dozen or so bites before my stomach had begun painfully cramping in protest. Aunt Merry had warned me it would happen but I had been so determined to have something that would make me happy that I hadn’t listened.

Luckily, unlike Púca who are almost completely vegetarian, Nymphs can eat poultry and fish. So while Jessica was having an eight-inch vegetarian pizza I was presented with an order of chicken wings with sides of ranch dressing, hot sauce, and honey garlic sauce to choose from and a small salad. I used the ranch for the salad and the hot sauce for the wings. For drinks, we had just grabbed some from the common room fridge, orange juice for me and Jess, and a cola for Melody. Unfortunately, soda was another thing that was no longer on the menu with my new physiology. Nobody ever said it was easy becoming a semi-mythological creature.

We were almost finished eating when the elevator doors opened and five people, who looked like normal humans at first glance, emerged loaded down with shopping bags. First, there was a Latina woman who looked to be in her thirties along with a girl that I guessed to be around fifteen or so who bore a strong enough resemblance to be her daughter. A second adult woman in perhaps her early to mid-twenties with short-cropped auburn hair who was wearing sunglasses held the hand of a little girl with bright green eyes, long ginger hair, and freckles. The last person was a somewhat attractive guy who looked to be close to our age with scruffy brown hair and brown eyes.

None of them seemed to notice us at first and while the two women and the little girl headed off to one of the dorm hallways the guy stopped to give the Latina girl a look of exasperation. “That’s not just a car, Carmen! That’s a 1970 Dodge Charger R/T in almost perfect condition!”

“It’s a car,” the girl replied equally frustrated. “It gets you from point A to point B, that’s all that matters.”

“Shows what you know,” he grumbled in response before a pensive look settled over his face. “I wonder who it belongs to. Maybe one of the club owners bought it? I could see Pandora buying something like that, but her Jag was still in the garage. I can’t see Tiffani driving something like that though. Everyone knows that Nymphs can be pretty ditzy and most of them can’t even live in cities so I doubt that they could tell the steering wheel from the gear shift, let alone drive.”

“Ditzy?!” Okay, our compulsions can leave us a bit distracted and unable to focus, but that does not mean that we’re bimbos. I was going to have enough trouble being seen as a slut or a stripper with my name and being a Nymph without being seen as an idiot on top. My face burned in both embarrassment and fury as I stood and stomped toward the pair, fists clenched at my sides and the remainder of my meal forgotten. “The Charger is mine, Jackass, and I drive just fine! And unlike some people, I’m smart enough to make sure that a Paranormal isn’t in the room before insulting their entire species!”

The boy’s eyes widened and he winced as he realized just what a huge hole he had dug for himself, while the Latino girl that he had called Carmen elbowed him in the ribs and grinned as she said, “Hey, Lou. That terrible taste in your mouth right now, that’s your foot.”

Lou’s face was bright red as he stammered, “I’m… uhhh…. well… I… didn’t know we were getting new dancers here.”

“Dude, just shut up, you’re embarrassing yourself,” Carmen said before sighing and rolling her eyes.

And of course, he assumed I was a new stripper. He probably thought I was going to be giving the extra services as well. And then there was the way that he was looking at me. I had begun to accept those looks of desire and the tents like he was sporting in his ratty jeans as a compliment and normally I would be fighting the urge to do something about it, but right then I was too angry. I hadn’t thought that I could get any angrier after his first remark, but color me surprised. I glared down at the straining crotch of his jeans, too angry to reply or even think straight, and that’s when I felt my magic going off. Oops.

By that time Melody and Jessica had already decided to step in. Jess took my hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze as Melody explained, “I’m here to work, I’ll be starting as a bouncer soon, but the twins here aren’t even eighteen for a few more weeks. They lost their father last week and they’re here to stay with their mother, Tiffani.”

Around the time that Melody had finished her hurried explanation Lou shuddered and started walking very stiffly toward the same hall that our dorm rooms were in, seeming to shiver as he walked and said, “Excuse m-m-me.”

“Weird guy,” Jessica said as she watched him leave.

“Yeah, but he’s usually not that weird,” the girl said with a shrug. “He’s probably just intimidated because he thinks your mom is hot and if you’re Tiffani’s kids that means that you’ll be Pandora’s kids soon too since they’re engaged. And they’re both our moms’ bosses.”

“She’s engaged?! I thought when she said partner she meant business partner, not…” I sputtered, not able to finish that sentence.

“Well, they’re kind of both. You’d think a Nymph and a Succubus would be a weird couple but you can tell that they really care about one another and I guess it makes sense with their similar… interests. Mom said that they’ve been together since they opened this place ten years ago and they share the same room, though I guess they have a very open relationship. Pandora proposed a couple of months ago but they haven’t really started planning the wedding yet.” After dropping that bombshell on me she smiled and casually extended her hand to say, “Hi, I’m Carmen Diaz.”

Since I was a little too stunned to say much of anything at that moment, Jess and Melody handled the introductions and then gave her a summary of our fake backstories. It was a good thing that I let them do the talking since I hadn’t really gotten into my new ‘role’ as easily as Melody and Jessica and probably would have revealed things that I shouldn’t have. I tuned it all out for a while and by the time that I was paying attention it seemed that Jess was finishing our fictional story with, “… I take after Dad’s side of course, and I Manifested when I was like thirteen but we’d almost given up on Crystal ever Manifesting until that ski trip last week.”

“Yeah, that’s how we met actually. Crystal’s been having a bit of a hard time adjusting and then they got home and found out about the fire. It’s been a hard week for them,” Melody added as she reached out to give my shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

“Aww, now I feel bad about dropping the whole engagement thing on you like that,” Carmen said, casting an apologetic look in my direction. “I only recently Manifested too. Mom and I come from a long line of Healers. We’re pretty much normal humans except we have golden eyes and we have what Mom calls a focused alignment to the Divine element. We don’t really count as Mages since we can’t seem to use anything but healing and purification magic.”

“Hey, at least you can do something cool, I just change into a rabbit and I can’t even get my human form completely right. I despise wearing contacts and trying to hide my bunny features all of the time,” Jessica grumbled.

“Yeah, contacts suck,” Carmen readily agreed. “I have to wear them whenever I go out, but Mom says that I can probably take them out at school since I’m going to a school for Paranormals starting in January.”

“We’re supposed to be going to one too. Tiffani said that we’d be going to school with one of you,” Melody pointed out.

“Oh cool! At least we’ll all know each other. I was a bit uncertain about whether I wanted to go or not at first. I mean, sure, a school for Paranormals sounds cool but how are we supposed to meet cute boys at St. Michelle’s School for Girls?”

“School for girls?” I managed to get out as I gaped at Carmen in horror.

“I know, right? No boys and we have to wear stupid uniforms too,” the Latino girl said with an exasperated tone and a roll of her eyes. “Lou goes to the boys’ school. Speaking of that idiot, I should introduce the three of you around. Just let me put my Christmas shopping in my room and take out my contacts real quick, I’ll be right back.”

The second that I was sure she was out of earshot I hissed to the others, “I can’t go to a girls’ school!”

Jessica calmly looked me up and down and reported, “You have all of the qualifications you need, Sis. Trust me, nobody is gonna look at you and think you’re a dude. What’s with all the worry? I thought that you were comfortable with your body other than having to wear clothes and being constantly horny. Speaking of, Mel, you should help her with that before she explodes.”

Melody turned as red as a cherry tomato and I was probably blushing pretty bad too since I could feel my face burning. I looked toward Melody and quickly away again as my breath caught in my throat and my heart skipped a beat, then I firmly squashed the heat of my desire as I tried to respond to my sister’s stupid hint that I was interested in Melody or vice versa. “I… what… no! You know what I meant! I don’t know anything about being a girl!”

“Could have fooled me with the way you’re acting like some lovesick schoolgirl, you and Mel just need to get a room already,” Jess snapped back.

How could she keep saying things like that? Sure Melody was hot and had that whole bad girl thing going for her but I was still kind of pissed at her and she just wasn’t my type. I didn’t even know what my type was anymore. Besides, I was a total hottie so I could get anyone I wanted. Why should I care if Melody didn’t want to pursue her supposed interest in me?

I loved my sister, but I had had enough of her throwing these delusions of hers in my face. “Would you stop that?! Okay, sure, she said all that stuff under the truth spell! She mentioned being attracted to me and wishing she could share my bed, but probably half the population is in that boat! She talked about love at first sight, but did she say she was still in love?! She said that she liked me more the more time we spend together, but she’s been damn careful not to step outside the friend zone! Get it through your head! I’m damaged goods and she isn’t interested in me that way! All that showing off for me and shamelessly flirting at first, and then nothing since she found out I used to be a guy!” I hissed in anger.

“I was trying to give you space, you gorgeous idiot! For the record, I am interested, but you’ve had one hell of a shitty few days and I didn’t think you wanted me throwing myself at you! You’re going to get enough of that from everyone else!” Melody replied hotly. Then she surprised me by cupping my face in her hands and planting her lips on my own.

Her lips were so soft and warm as she kissed me. It was hesitant at first, for both of us, as my heart hammered away in my chest. I couldn’t be sure it if was from the surprise, the fact that I had never kissed anyone before, or the red hot flames of desire that were swiftly spreading from my loins, throughout my body, and seemingly to the very depths of my soul. The kiss became slowly more insistent, almost frantic, as I pressed my body against Melody’s, as if by doing so I could share that fire inside me with her.

She pulled away gasping for air, our hands all over one another and I too tried to catch my breath and give myself a moment to think. It was enough time to know that I didn’t want to think, I wanted to act. Thinking was overrated anyway and I was having a difficult time caring about anything aside from my aching nipples, the heat rushing through me, and the warm gooeyness between my legs that was soaking my panties. I dove back in, wrapping my arms around her as I engulfed her lips in my own. Soon we were going at it hot and heavy, our tongues darting frantically around one another and our hands exploring each other’s bodies through our clothes.

I wanted… no, I needed her so badly. I needed to get those annoying clothes off and do what every instinct that I had was screaming for me to do. I needed something inside me. Most of all though, I needed to show her how very much I wanted her to make me hers.

The polite cough ruined everything, not because I had actually paid any attention to it but because Melody had broken off our kiss. I was desperate for more, to take this further, and I tried to kiss her again, confused as to why she had suddenly stopped. Maybe it was because those annoying clothes were getting in the way? I was fevered, my large chest heaving as I reached up to remove my top but Melody had grabbed my wrists and held them firmly yet gently in her powerful grip.

“Crystal, we need to cool it,” Melody’s voice spoke tremulously, breaking through the fog of lust and desire that held me captive. I shook my head, trying to clear it, to remember where and who I was. Though I was still aflame with desperate desire, I remembered. Then I felt myself burning with embarrassment instead as I looked toward Jessica and Carmen and realized what I had been ready and eager to do right there in front of them.

I looked away and tried to control my breathing and bury the desire that was consuming me as my sister smirked and teased, “Well, if you two are done inspecting one another’s dental work, among other things, Carmen was going to introduce us to some people.”

I remained quiet as Carmen covered a giggle and said, “Follow me, almost everyone is working downstairs right now except for my Mom and the housekeeping staff so it won’t take long.” She offered to give us a tour and explain how things worked in our new home the next day, but for now, she took us to officially meet the others, starting with Lou. As we walked toward his room she explained, “We all call him Lou for short, it’s just easier, but his actual name is Louis-Phillippe Garou. He’s seventeen and he and his Mom, Genevieve, are Werewolves. She’s one of the dancers here.”

She stopped and knocked on the door with his name on it and when he answered he immediately frowned at me. He was dressed only in a t-shirt and boxers now and while he looked yummy, I was still having trouble shaking off that kiss with Melody and how it had affected me. Lou didn’t say anything so Carmen took the initiative. “Why’d you take off so fast, Lou? You didn’t even stick around to introduce yourself to the new girls.”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe it had something to do with the fact that someone froze my underwear solid,” the Werewolf grumbled with another dirty look in my direction.

I flushed in embarrassment. So that was what I did? I squirmed and looked at the suddenly fascinating floor. “I’m sorry, I only Manifested recently and I can’t control my…”

I was interrupted as Jessica and Carmen both began giggling and the latter of the pair grinned at me. “Really?! While he was wearing them?! Talk about giving the poor boy a case of blue balls! Can you do bras too? You’re going to be a riot at slumber parties!”

Lou didn’t seem to find it as funny as they did and I had been a guy recently enough to be sympathetic. I couldn’t look at him as I muttered in response to Carmen, “Gee thanks, just what I always wanted to hear.” I took a deep breath and then forced myself to look Lou in the eye. “Look, I’m sorry, but you were being kind of a douchebag and I can’t control my magic yet. Anyway, let’s start over. I’m Crystal, my sister is Jessica, and that’s Melody.”

Lou sighed and shrugged. “I guess that I was being a jerk and generalizing. It’s just, Nymphs do have a reputation and until now I only met your mother. She’s nice but she can be a bit flighty sometimes.”

We’re not stupid,” I countered in irritation, “we just get distracted. Look, you’re a teenage guy so you’ve probably got sex dominating your thoughts a lot, especially in this place. Now, instead of just thinking about sex, make that being the horniest that you’ve ever been, and multiply the intensity by about five thousand. And this isn’t just a lot of the time but every single waking second of every single day.”

I let him think about that for a second before adding, “But wait, there’s more! Add in the fact that clothes are annoying as fuck to wear and doing so causes you constant anxiety, you have to fight the urge to rip them off every single second as well, and you have no choice but to wear them while living around humans and other Paranormals. Then there’s the constant need to be near the element that you’re aligned to as well. Try having all of that take over your entire life and let’s see how well you can concentrate on everything around you.”

It was Lou’s turn to look at the floor but I wasn’t feeling too sympathetic anymore because I was still insanely horny from kissing Melody and talking about my damn compulsions and horniness just made me more aware of them. At least I didn’t have to be around snow or ice all of the time. It was nice when I could be but I knew just how lucky I was to be aligned to the Divine as well, not that I could tell anyone else that.

“I get it,” Lou reluctantly admitted. “Well, I don’t think that I can actually get it but I have a pretty good idea now. I’m sorry, I’m a big hairy ass. I’ve… uhh… got some things to take care of before bed. I’ll see you all at breakfast in the morning.” His face turned beet red as he hurriedly stepped back and closed the door.

“Yeah, I’ve got a pretty good idea what he needs to take care of,” Jessica said with a laugh. “I’m surprised he didn’t close the door on it.”

“Huh?” I cleverly asked in my confusion.

Jessica, Melody, and Carmen were all laughing and it was a moment before my sister managed to get enough control over herself to explain. “Let’s just say that the door wasn’t the only wood between you when he rushed back into his room. He was just wearing a t-shirt and boxer shorts so it was really obvious but who could blame him? I mean, there was a Nymph at his door talking about wanting sex and to rip her clothes off all the time.”

I really need to patent the shade of red that my face has been turning with frightening regularity of late. I wasn’t sure if I should be embarrassed, flattered, disturbed, or horny. I settled for all of the above. I wasn’t so out of it that I wasn’t able to get in a dig back at my sister though. “I wouldn’t know, Jess, I wasn’t looking at his crotch. I thought I was the one with sex on the brain here, but maybe I’m not the only one, hmmm? So, why were you looking?” Her bright red face was more than enough reward for me.

After that, Carmen took us to meet Jack and Jill, the husband and wife pair of Brownies that made up two-thirds of the housekeeping staff, followed by the Auburn-haired woman and her redheaded daughter. Aislinn was a Selkie and the last member of the housekeeping staff and her daughter Sorcha would probably Manifest when she started puberty as well, but at only four years old she had a while to wait. We didn’t get to meet Sorcha yet though since she hadn’t had a nap earlier in the day and just gone to sleep but we were promised that we’d see her at breakfast the next morning and Aislinn was more than happy to talk to some of her ‘cousins’ for a while.

Since Selkies were Fey cousins closely related to Púca she had a lot in common with Jess and me with the allergies and the usual Fey compulsions regarding the truth and promises. The Brownies did too, but Brownies prefer to stay in the background and typically aren’t very social except with one another, so we had kept our visit with them brief. While Púca are technically animals who change into humanoid forms, Selkies are the opposite, humans who can turn into seals. While that meant that Aislinn didn’t have the shapeshifting issues that Jess had, she did have one problem. Selkies see best underwater or in low light, so she had to wear sunglasses when outside during the day or in brightly lit places.

The last stop was to meet Carmen’s mother, Dr. Isabella Diaz. She was a medical doctor in addition to her Healing gift and Carmen wanted to follow in her footsteps someday. She looked after the medical needs of everyone who lived above the club and she and Carmen lived there so she would be available if needed. She didn’t spend all of her time there though, as she also had a general practice for Paranormal patients nearby that she kept open from nine in the mornings to two in the afternoons from Mondays to Thursdays.

Once Carmen had made the round of introductions Dr. Diaz smiled and said, “It’s nice to meet all of you, it’s nice to know that Carmen will know some other girls at school. As she has probably told you, I’ll be acting as your doctor while you’re staying here, so I would like to see the three of you for general checkups tomorrow and to establish a baseline. I’ll talk to Tiffani to arrange something but since tomorrow is Sunday I should be available all day.”

I tried to act like it was no big deal, but the thought of seeing Carmen’s mother as a patient was freaking me out. Melody looked concerned as well. I couldn’t stop thinking about and dreading that visit during our short conversation and then on our way back to our rooms. What if she figured out my secret or asked something that I didn’t know the answer to but should?

As freaked out and distracted as I was though I was also dead tired. We all were, Jessica and Melody could barely keep their eyes open. It had felt like the longest day ever, we all had jetlag, and it was now it was all catching up with us as we shuffled to our dorm rooms and mumbled our goodnights.

I didn’t even have the energy to try to take the edge off the rampant horniness that I had barely able to control since I had Manifested two days ago. It just figured. The first time that I had some privacy and a chance to do the exploration of my new body that I had been promising myself and I was too damn tired. I had barely gotten my clothes off and climbed into bed before I fell asleep.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 8 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 8: No Place Like Home

I had a good solid sleep for the first time since I had Manifested over two days ago. We had been so busy running around trying to lay down false trails for bounty hunters to follow, making preparations, and trying to help me to adapt to and learn about my new self that we hadn’t had time for more than a short nap at the Nordic Hotel in Vancouver. I had tried to sleep on the plane but I had been far too anxious while wearing clothes, and having that many people around me had me too horny and keyed up to sleep regardless.

It was the dream that finally woke me. A dream of that kiss with Melody that had quickly gone from kissing to much more. I don’t really remember the exact details, but that’s not surprising since I didn’t really have the real-life experience to base the dream off and frankly, I don’t think my imagination was vivid enough to fill in those missing blanks. So, everything was a bit hazy other than kisses, roaming hands, and a feeling of slowly building pressure like a tea kettle slowly coming to a boil and then going off with a whistle as it attained maximum entropy.

Unlike that imaginary teapot, I didn’t whistle. I screamed out in mind-shattering rapture, my back so arched that only my heels and shoulders were touching the satin sheets beneath me as my hands continued to frantically stimulate my left nipple and between my legs. I was only dimly aware that I was now awake as I urgently pushed for a second and then a third orgasm on the heels of the first, trying to ease the desperate need that had been my constant companion since I had Manifested.

I was clumsy, inexperienced, and mostly working on instinct but once that magical third orgasm washed over me, once again filling my body and mind with the heat and light of a thousand suns, I collapsed onto the bed in a puddle. Okay, two puddles if you count that I felt like one myself. My body was humming and though I had worn myself out with my morning ‘exercise session’ I felt so alive and right, as if I were laying in a field of snow.

Who would have thought that that multiple orgasms could be so amazing? I would have thought that they would be less intense simply because there were more of them but each one seemed much stronger and more all-consuming than my attempts at self-pleasure as a guy. It was like each one had become more and more powerful, infusing me with warmth, joy, and light that filled me to my soul. I didn’t know if that was a girl thing or a Nymph thing but I could definitely get used to it.

As I laid there smiling, giggling to myself, and savoring the afterglow of my first sexual experience as my new self I gazed dreamily at the alarm clock beside the bed. The face of the clock announced that it was 7:23 so I estimated that I had gotten about nine or ten hours of sleep. Being fully rested and filled with the post-orgasmic warm fuzzies, I felt the best that I had since I had Manifested. As much as I wanted to just bask in that feeling though, I had to get up.

We had been told the night before that breakfast is always at nine o’clock sharp on weekends and seven-thirty on weekdays. Everyone living above the club, at least those of us who needed to eat regular food, ate together down in the club. Usually, that gave everyone, even those working the club, a good six hours or more in rest since the club was open from four pm until one in the morning from Mondays to Thursdays, until two on Fridays and Saturdays, and completely closed on Sundays.

The reason that I had to be up early though was that Jessica was likely going to be knocking at my door in roughly seven minutes. Why is that, you ask? Because we didn’t have much time while on the run and leaving false trails for me to learn much of anything about being a girl, except for maybe how to put a bra on. With that in mind, Jessica had wanted to get started on teaching me girl stuff and start getting into our new roles.

Can you believe that she actually wanted to start practicing doing the twin thing? You know, finishing each other’s sentences, saying things at the same time, and knowing what one another was thinking. We had always been close and could tell when one another was upset or lying or something, but she wanted to take things to the next level and get really in synch. What can I say? She commits to her roles and now I had to as well.

Jessica was hoping that if we got into these roles deeply enough that it would become second nature and become our actual lives. Easy for her to say, she just needed to memorize some details on our fictional pasts. Everything had changed for me and while she may have altered her human form to look near identical to mine, she didn’t have to change her given name, gender, or much about who she was inside. She could be the same person and have the same interests, just with a different backstory.

I got up and out of the bed and my cheeks flushed at the sight of the large wet spot on the satin sheets, I hadn’t been kidding about the puddle thing earlier. It could have been worse though, at least the automated lilac scented air freshener in the room would stop it from smelling like a Greek orgy, eventually. I debated getting dressed, but the knock at the door put the brakes on that idea.

With a resigned sigh, I walked over to the door and opened it to reveal my sister standing there with a smile and dressed in her slightly too small lavender silk bathrobe. She figured it would do for the morning, but we both needed new clothes soon. “Mornin’, Sis. I hope you got a good sleep because we have a lot to do today.” Suddenly she sniffed the air and then glanced over my shoulder toward my bed before teasing, “Well, it seems like you’ve been up for a while, and enjoying yourself.”

“I… well… I… ummm,” I stammered, looking at the floor as my cheeks burned.

I was surprised when she reached out to hug me. “Relax, Crystal. I’m not gonna give you shit for something like that. Girls do it too you know, and you should since you’ve walked in on me once. I’m surprised that you held out as long as you have. I do have a sensitive nose and I know how much you’ve been holding back.”

‘I didn’t mean to… I mean, I kinda had some intense dreams and when I woke up I was in the middle of…” I admitted, just enjoying the closeness with my sister.

Jessica took me by the hand and led me to the edge of the bed. “Crystal, I know that it’s been hard for you, it probably still is, but this is who you are now. You need to embrace this and be who you’re meant to be and nobody has the right to fault you for that. If they do I’ll kick their ass, if you don’t freeze their underwear or something first.”

I caught the smirk on her face as she said the last and sighed. “I didn’t mean to, I just got angry and it happened.” I never used to get angry or overly emotional, but it seemed that I was doing it constantly since Manifesting. There was just so much to get used to and between the compulsions, living in a strip club in a strange city with people I didn’t really know, and not being able to control my new magic. Honestly, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I had only one constant in my life still, my sister, and I was afraid that I was going to lose her too.

“It was hilarious, and you have to admit, he kind of deserved it. I know everything is different now, it’s been freaking me out too and I think people will understand that, but it’s also why we need to immerse ourselves in our new lives and roles. Whatever happens, whoever we are, we will always have each other, Sis. I’ll still be your sister, in fact, I think we’re going to be even closer than we ever were,” Jessica assured me, seemingly sensing my uncertainty.

For a few more minutes we just sat there and held one another, enjoying the contact with that one person in the world who meant the most to us. Then Jessica dragged me toward my bathroom so that I could shower while she tried to get me into the mindset of being Crystal. Since my new background was similar to my old one with the whole losing our father thing, only recently Manifesting, and having to leave everything I knew except for my sister, Jessica was trying to get me into the parts of the role that I couldn’t really relate to or had no experience with.

Crystal had grown up a girl so I would need to appear as if I had as well. That was the most important part of my role and the one that Jessica had decided needed the most work. With that in mind, she started giving me girl lessons as I showered. There were only the very basics there, shampoo, conditioner, soap, and towels, and apparently, it was not near enough for a normal teenage girl. At least I wouldn’t need to worry about shaving my legs or underarms since Nymphs don’t grow body hair.

Jessica planned for us to get all of the necessities for both us and Melody when we went to West Edmonton Mall later to get new clothes and stuff. Once we did have everything, she planned on teaching me every little thing that I would ever want or need to know about the daily life and beauty regimen that I would need to stick to. I was a bit uncertain about all the girlie pampering that she had planned until she told me that I would be even more attractive if I took the effort to always look, smell, and feel my best. Nymphs have a narcissistic streak a mile wide about their appearances, and it seemed that I was no exception, so I took the bait hook, line, and sinker.

Since she couldn’t do any hands-on training in that area until we had what was needed and my mannerisms and body language were now naturally very feminine and a bit seductive from my new Nymph nature, Jessica tried to give me some general knowledge about growing up a girl. It wasn’t all about playing with dolls and stuff like that, but stuff like biology, psychology, proper feminine hygiene, being more in touch with my emotions, and about how teenage girls interact with boys and one another. Not every girl is the same though so that gave me a bit of freedom to have been a bit of a tomboy before Manifesting, which would make my role a bit easier.

When I was finally out of the shower (it took forever to wash my hair since it was down to the middle of my thighs) I quickly patted rather than rubbed myself dry, as per my sister’s instructions. Then she got her hairdryer and brush from her room and proceeded to dry and then braid my long white tresses. After that she taught me how to braid hers since she had copied my hair length as well as my face and body. I was a little uncertain and clumsy at first but I had pretty nimble fingers now and got used to it quickly.

I was actually surprised by how relaxing it was, not just having my hair braided, but braiding someone else’s. There was this soothing sort of rhythm to it once you got going. By the time that I had finished though it was almost time for breakfast.

Sadly, that meant that I had to put on clothes. We probably would have had to wear the same clothes as the day before if Mom hadn’t dropped off some clothes before heading downstairs herself. They weren’t really teenage fashion and they were a bit over the top sexy, but they fit well since Mom had the club’s costume designer make them for us last night using the measurements that she had gotten from Aunt Merry.

We quickly put on the silk thong panties and demi bras, followed by the matching stockings, and then shimmied into the short sexy low-cut V-neck mini dresses with spaghetti straps that Mom had the club’s costume designer make the evening before. Jess’s was ruby red satin with black stockings and undergarments and mine was a cerulean and silver brocade with raised snowflake patterns accompanied by white stockings and undergarments. Jess was able to increase her shoe size enough to use some of her old shoes for now and I wore the white sling backs that she had gotten me in Vancouver.

We stepped outside my room and Melody was waiting for us so we could all hit the elevator together. She was wearing a simple jeans and t-shirt combination with black leather ankle boots and stared at me wide-eyed for a moment before she surprised me with a toe-curling kiss that re-stoked the fires of desire within me. As we walked to the common room and then the elevator on the hardwood floors I tried to calm myself down and wondered if I would ever get used to the sound of clicking heels in time with my steps. Once the elevator arrived we pressed the button for the first floor and rode downward.

The club was huge, taking up almost the entire first floor of the building with burgundy-colored walls, black carpet made from natural fibers, and neon lights everywhere. The elevator was set in the wall opposite the main entrance and near the large half-oval-shaped stage that took up almost the entire length of the back wall with a stripper pole on each end. About eight feet away from the elevator there was a door in the corner that went to what I assumed must be a backstage area.

Comfortable-looking barstools surrounded the stage and almost all of the rest of the club was filled with table booths designed so the occupants could see the main stage or the bars to either side of the room. In addition to the drinks that were probably served there, and the barstools, each of the two bars also had a circular mini-stage to each side of them. Mom, Aunt Merry, and a bunch of other people were all seated at some of the large booths that sat near a pair of double doors to one side of one of the bars that I figured led to the kitchen.

As we approached the table where Mom and Aunt Merry were sitting with a bunch of people that I didn’t recognize I stopped mid-step to sniff the air. I wasn’t the only one, because Jessica had done the same thing beside me. Then as one, we looked at one another and asked, “Do you smell that?” We both blinked in surprise and grinned as we both squealed in unison, “Blueberry cinnamon pancakes!” Wow, maybe we wouldn’t have to practice the twin thing after all. Though I was pretty sure that had been a fluke since it just happened to be our favorite breakfast, something that Dad used to make on the weekends for us.

Still, we were getting a lot of looks from those already seated for breakfast. Some were staring in confusion and wonder, Carmen was outright giggling, Mom and Aunt Merry were trying not to laugh, and Melody just gave us a long wide-eyed look and said, “Damn. That is going to take some getting used to.”

Mom had managed to get herself under control and smiled at us. “I wanted you to feel at home here, and your Dad once said that those were your favorite weekend breakfast.”

I could feel myself close to crying and I heard Jess sniffle beside me. We both rushed forward to wrap Mom up in a hug and blubbered out, “Thanks, Mom.”

Again it had come out in stereo and I heard Aunt Merry chuckle and say, “That’s downright uncanny.”

Breakfast was nice and there was a lot to choose from, though I was a bit distracted, not to mention horny, with so many people there, especially the gorgeous dancers. Jess and I both had a glass of milk and a stack of blueberry cinnamon pancakes with maple syrup but where Jess had fresh fruit with hers, I had some scrambled eggs and a single sausage with mine. Melody tried a little bit of everything and seemed pretty happy with it.

Once we had finished eating, Mom quickly introduced us and Melody to everyone since we were all together. The only other one of the kids that we hadn’t officially met was Aislinn’s daughter Sorcha, a very precocious four-year-old whose eyes went wide when she saw me and Jessica up close. Partly it was from the fact that we were identical except for Jess’s bunny features, and partly because of my sister’s aforementioned bunny features, especially the ears. I sensed that we were going to have a new little admirer.

Other than her, those who we had met the night before, and Mom and Aunt Merry, we were meeting everyone for the first time. Everyone who lived in the building was there. They were all full-time employees or dancers for Pandora’s Box so it was easier for them all to live there as well.

The club had a bunch of part-time employees too, such as all the waitresses, bartenders, kitchen helpers, and a few part-time dancers but they all had lives outside the club and didn’t stay there unless something like bad weather prevented them from going home after a shift. Everyone who was there at that moment though lived and worked together and they were all kind of like a huge, and slightly strange, family from what we had learned from Carmen the night before.

First, Mom introduced us to her fiancée and business partner, Pandora. Since it seemed like they were getting married eventually I harbored the brief hope that I could have a reason to change my name to something less stripper-like someday. That is until I found out that her last name was Cox. I just have no luck.

Pandora was a pretty Succubus with peaches and cream skin, attention-grabbing pink eyes, and lavender hair and like other Succubae she also had a pair of bat-like wings on her back that matched her eye color. I had thought that Succubae and Incubi are Demons and drain people of their life force but apparently, that’s one of many common misconceptions about them. They feed on sexual energy, desire, and lust to keep themselves young and healthy, not on life energy, and for physical energy they still need to eat regular food. They aren’t aligned to Death, or any element actually. They’re not Demons either, they’re a type of psychic shapeshifter with heightened pheromone levels.

Next, we were introduced to Brock and Cindy Dawson, the husband and wife Merfolk that ran the kitchen. Like all Merfolk they couldn’t use their physical voices so they spoke with everyone telepathically, which worried me a bit until Mom told us that they could only hear thoughts that were directed toward them and we could talk normally since they could hear just fine. Sitting with them was the really tall and muscular woman with olive skin and raven hair that I had noticed guarding the door before going to park the Charger the day before. Her name was Annika Stamos and she was an actual Amazon, not that that should have surprised me.

The last two of the non-dancer full-time staff were another husband and wife pair named Derek and Lana Pearson. Derek was a Faun and he had a handsome face, dark brown hair, goat-like legs and stubby horns, and a kind of deep soothing voice. He ran the club’s DJ booth; playing music, setting up the playlists for each dancer’s shows, introducing them before they got on stage, and making any announcements.

Lana was born a normie but she was a very pretty and very pregnant woman of African descent who had been trained as a Witch. While she wasn’t aligned to any element like Mages were, and it was harder for her to use magic than someone who was, her ritualistic magic allowed her to cast small spells from any of the ten elements. She also acted as the club’s costume designer and seamstress and she was the one who had made the clothes that Jess and I were wearing at the moment until we could go shopping.

Then there were Mom and Pandora’s fellow dancers, though they all preferred to think of themselves as entertainers since they all did more than just dancing. First, there were three other Succubae that were introduced as sisters named Stella, Anita, and Adora Dicken, each with dark green eyes and wings and hair in various shades of blue. Their mother was a normie but their father was an Incubus and apparently had a sadistic streak if their names were anything to go by. They seemed nice enough, weren’t that much older than me and Jess, and during breakfast, they had been telling me just how great their job was for ‘girls like us’ in an attempt to get me to join the fold when I officially turned eighteen.

Then there was Lou’s Werewolf-mother Genevieve, a nice but snarky three-tailed Japanese Kitsune named Krysti Fox, a Lamia with Mediterranean features named Nadia Seymour, an Undine with dark blue hair and eyes named Nixie Wells, and a pretty blonde Huldra named Rhissa Dahl. All of them could fit in pretty well with the Norms if they needed to. Genevieve only had trouble keeping her human form on full moons, Rhissa looked human except for her cow-like tail which she kept hidden under long skirts in public, and Krysti, Nadia, and Nixie were all adept enough as shapeshifters to hide their non-human features.

There were two among the entertainers who had to be careful outside the club though, each for their own reasons. The first of these was Carmilla, who I had noticed had only drank a dark red liquid during breakfast. She was a Vampire with blood-red hair and eyes and I don’t know if she was that Carmilla, but she had been there since the club had first opened, nobody knew her by any other name, she was much older than she looked and from what I heard later she was only interested in women, at least attraction-wise.

Carmilla hardly left the club at all since she couldn’t go out in daylight unless she wanted a really bad sunburn, and she was the only one exempt from weekly purification spells since they would likely kill her and being undead she didn’t have to worry about things like STDs. She admitted that she only offered the extra services to male clients so she could feed, but she only took enough from each to sate her thirst and leave them a bit light-headed. Most of the blood that she drank came from a contact that Dr. Diaz had at a local blood bank. She wasn’t vicious and bloodthirsty like I had expected a Vampire to be, instead, she seemed distant at times and a bit sad.

The last to be introduced was the newest resident before we had arrived and the other who had issues leaving the club much. Sukoha was a Kuromihar, they’re Paranormal creatures that dwelled in remote areas of the Amazon Rainforest but have largely been displaced. They look like beautiful human women, if human women had pale green skin and crimson hair. She would have to get someone to cast a glamour on her to leave the club and because her kind was used to the weather in Brazil, Sukoha got cold easily this far north and could only really be comfortable outside when bundled up or during the warmer months.

With that odd coloring, a gorgeous body, huge cocoa brown eyes, and full kissable lips Sukoha was exotic and very pretty, and Lou had made sure to sit as far from the Kuromihar as possible during breakfast. Once breakfast and introductions were done, the housekeeping staff got to work, and everyone else went about whatever they did during the day I turned to Carmen and asked, “What’s up with Lou and Sukoha? He looks terrified of her.”

Carmen laughed and said, “Let’s just say that his idiocy when meeting you yesterday wasn’t an isolated incident.” Then she turned toward little Sorcha who was following us like a lost puppy since her mother was off doing her job and asked, “Sorcha, could you go to the kitchen and ask Cindy for some Salamander food? Then we can check on Ashe and Jenny. We’ll need to be careful though, remember.”

The little redhead nodded her head so eagerly that I thought it might fly off. “Yuh-huh, Carmen! I go get da food!” Then she ran off excitedly for the kitchen.

The moment she was gone Carmen grinned and told Melody, Jessica, and me in a hushed tone, “Sukoha arrived about three months ago. Back then Lou was best buddies with Arand, he was the temporary bouncer who Melody is replacing, and he left a few weeks ago after getting a permanent job as a bodyguard. Anyway, they had seen her passing and were talking about how pretty and exotic she was and they made note of her lips and big eyes. Arand went on to say something about how awesome she would be giving BJs and how he’d love to see those big eyes looking up at him while doing it. Lou agreed and neither of them had noticed that she had turned back toward them and overheard.”

“So, what happened?” Melody pressed, shaking her head at their stupidity.

“Sukoha told them that she hadn’t started working yet and that she didn’t have any experience with that kind of thing, but she would be happy to help them both out and get some learning experience. And then she smiled,” Carmen said with another grin. “She still asks Lou once in a while when he’s going to let her get some practice in, and she always smiles when she asks.”

We all started laughing and I didn’t think that I was alone in trying to picture the look on Lou’s face. I had seen Sukoha smiling and laughing during breakfast. Her people were apparently carnivores and her mouth was filled with needle-like teeth roughly three-quarters of an inch long. We were still laughing when Sorcha returned a few minutes later with a tiny clay bowl that fit easily in her four-year-old hands filled with finely cut meat scraps.

Carmen would have started the tour with the kitchen but Brock and Cindy were busy with prep work for lunch and the week ahead so she didn’t want to bother them. It was just your standard restaurant kitchen anyway and it would always be there later if we really wanted to look. Instead, she took us through the club and to the door that led to the backstage area.

Backstage was mostly a changing area with several vanities set up for the dancers to get in costumes and do their makeup before going out to dance. There was also a room for costume storage, which had clothing racks filled with various costumes, each with one of the dancer’s names. Finally, there was Lana’s domain, a sewing room where the costume designer made costumes and alterations. She wasn’t there at the moment though since it was Sunday and she and Derek were going somewhere to enjoy their day off together.

Sorcha was going to be sticking with us for the tour, but she couldn’t really keep up well with her little legs so Melody had hefted her up onto her shoulders for a piggy-back ride, much to the girl’s delight, while Jess took the tiny bowl of meat. Sorcha didn’t weigh that much and Melody did have that demonic strength of hers.

It seemed that while her mother was working during the days Sorcha usually spent time with Carmen, Lou, or one of the dancers watching over her. Everyone tried to help with her where they could and keep her occupied so she’d kind of become the communal child for everyone who lived at the club and they all adored her, even the brooding Carmilla. It made me feel a bit relieved and happy that we came to live with Mom.

For the next stop on the tour, we took the elevator down to the garage. We’d already seen it of course, but Carmen wanted to show us the boiler room so she asked Melody to open the heavy metal door since it wouldn’t take her as much effort as the rest of us. The room was lit by some weird kind of lamp hanging from the ceiling and connected to the fuse box for the building and although I saw plenty of pipes and wiring and stuff I didn’t really see anything that looked like a boiler. The closest thing I saw was something that looked like a steampunk version of an old-fashioned wood stove with a bunch of pipes and connected to a massive water heater.

“We’re not on the city power grid, it would be a problem if the electric company started looking into why so much power is going to the park,” Carmen explained as she pointed to what I had thought was a strange lamp. “That’s Generator, but we call it Jenny for short. It provides all of the electricity that we’ll ever need.”

“Wait, is that a…” What I had thought was a lamp was actually a sort of cylindrical Plexiglas cage with a ball of light inside that had electricity arcing along its surface and the surface of the enclosure. It was a Wisp, a Lightning elemental. They’re basically just living bundles of pure electric energy. They don’t eat or drink like we do but get their sustenance from the gasses in the air. They could be unpredictable though.

“Where did they get a Wisp? I’ve heard that you don’t often see them away from the Electric Plane,” Melody said in wonder.

“Friends in low places, have you met Grundle?” Carmen asked. At our nods, she explained, “Well, he does a lot of favors for your mom and Pandora and he can travel to other Planes so he caught Jenny for us. He also brought Ashe to us.”

“Ashe?” my sister asked in confusion.

Carmen nodded as she grabbed a pair of oven mitts from the wall and used them to open the steampunk wood stove. Inside was a white-hot fire, enough to make me instinctively back away from the heat, though as soon as the door opened the flames dissipated to reveal a tiny little hot rod red dragon-like creature with a largish head, short neck, yellow eyes, and black wavy stripes along the back of its head, torso, and serpentine tail. It was maybe fourteen inches in length from its snout to the tip of its tail with a wingspan of maybe twelve inches.

“Ashe is a Salamander, one of the Fire elementals,” Carmen offered. “She was injured when Grundle found her so we nursed her back to health and trained her. She knows that if we open the door or take her out for some exercise or to feed her that she needs to put out her flames so she doesn’t hurt anyone. She provides all of our heat and hot water.”

The Salamander fluttered out and nuzzled Carmen and Sorcha, making the latter giggle happily. Once the tiny clay bowl full of meat was placed on the floor she began to gobble it up and looked curiously up at me, Melody, and my sister. Those yellow eyes lingered on me, seeming to peer into my soul as she cocked her head and made a sound somewhere between purring and mewling. Then she jumped at me and I barely had time to take a step back in shock before she started nuzzling me like she had Sorcha and Carmen. “Eeep!” I squeaked.

Ashe was warm but not unpleasantly hot and I tentatively reached out to stroke her little head with a single finger like Carmen and Sorcha had done when she had nuzzled them. Carmen gave me a strange look, announcing, “That’s odd, Ashe usually takes a while to warm up to new people. Sorcha and I usually come down to feed and exercise her together because we’re the only ones that she lets get physical with her like that, though I sometimes need to remind Sorcha to be careful.”

Now that she had gotten her petting the Salamander returned to her bowl, finished her meal, and seemed ready to return to her spot inside the steampunk stove. Before Carmen could close the door though she flew back out carrying something black and leathery-looking that was about the size and shape of a robin egg in her front talons. Ashe landed on the floor in front of me, rolled the object toward my foot with her snout, and looked up to stare at me expectantly. “What’s she doing?” Melody asked as we watched carefully.

“That’s one of her eggs, she clutched three of them about two months ago and surprised us. She disappeared for nearly a day back in September and we think she might have returned to the Fire Plane for her mating cycle. She’s offering the last of them to Crystal or asking her to care for it, I can’t be sure which. She did the same with me and Sorcha last week and she doesn’t take no for an answer,” Carmen explained with a shrug. “She won’t stop staring at you and get back to work until you take it, Crystal.”

“Mama dun like my egg,” Sorcha said with a sad expression.

“Carmen reached out to ruffle the little girl’s bright red hair and smiled down at her,” It’s not that, Sweetie. It’s just that caring for something like that is a big responsibility, especially once they hatch, and she’s worried that you could get hurt. Grundle said that we should have a month or so to train them before they can stoke a flame so we just need to be careful and make sure that we teach them to behave. We can do it though, you were only two when we trained Ashe, but she was an adult and we did a good job with her didn’t we?”

Sorcha nodded and smiled, and since Ashe was still staring at me I knelt and carefully picked up the egg. Once it was in my hand the Salamander made a sound somewhere between a chirp and a croon and nuzzled me, Sorcha, and Carmen once more before returning to her stove and bursting into flames. The egg was harder and smoother than I had expected and really warm, almost too warm, and I was a little surprised that it hadn’t burned my hand since it had been in that white hot oven. wondered just what I was getting myself into as Carmen used the oven mitts to once again close the door of the stove. I was still staring at the egg when my sister asked, “So, where to next?”

Since the second floor was off-limits to us ‘kids’ Carmen led us up to the residential floor with Melody once again piggy-backing a giggling Sorcha. We had already seen pretty much the whole floor but there was one important area that we hadn’t yet, the infirmary where Carmen’s mother would probably want to give us new girls a checkup. Thankfully, before we did that Carmen wanted to help me put Ashe’s ‘gift’ in a place where it would stay warm and safe until it hatched.

Many of those who lived above the club had gone off to enjoy their day off while my Mom and Pandora were snuggled on the couch watching a movie on television with Sukoha. They all looked up as the elevator dinged open and Mom smiled and asked “So, you showed them everything, Carmen?”

“I sure did, Tiffani, though I still need to show them to the clinic, and Mom is probably going to want to get them in for a physical and stuff,” Carmen replied. Then she added with a laugh, “Ashe struck again though. For some reason, she took an instant liking to Crystal and we’ll need to get her set up for her new little buddy.”

All three of the women looked surprised. “Ashe never takes to anyone that fast,” Pandora said in sudden interest.

“No kidding, I’ve been here like three months and she barely tolerates me,” Sukoha agreed with a nod.

“Well, once you’re done getting Crystal set up you can take the girls to see your mother. They have a lot of errands to run today so I’d like Isabella to be finished with them as soon as possible,” my mother advised, filling me with a feeling of dread as I thought about seeing Dr. Diaz in a professional capacity.

I was expecting Carmen to put the egg in a pot of sand on top of the heater in my room or something but instead, she took us to her room and gave me a black velvet bag about two inches square with a long drawstring. It was filled with sand and had just enough space left for the tiny egg. I could feel divine magic on it as Carmen had me put the egg inside, tighten the drawstring as tight as it would go, and then put it around my neck to let the bag settle practically in my cleavage.

Carmen and Sorcha both had similar tiny bags under their shirts and she explained that Krysti had used Kitsune magic on them so that the inside of the bag would stay really warm for the eggs while the outsides of the bags were enchanted to protect the contents from any heavy impacts or other damage and to let the wearer know if the egg inside started to move. I thought that it was pretty cool but Carmen warned me that, according to Grundle, when the eggs hatched the Salamanders inside would have to be extracted and fed ASAP and since the eggs were hard and black it would probably be fairly soon, a few days at most.

It only took a few minutes in her room to get me set up and to then explain the details so soon we were on our way to the dreaded clinic, which turned out to be the dorm room across from Dr. Diaz’s room. Carmen knocked on the door to her mother’s room and after a moment her mother opened the door to smile at us. “Well, girls, if you’re here then the tour must be over. Tiffani tells me that you have a lot to do today so why don’t we get your physicals out of the way? So, who’s first?”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 9 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 9: Reality Check

None of us was particularly looking forward to getting poked and prodded but I thought it best to save myself some frayed nerves and get it over with. I’m not sure if Jess was thinking along the same lines or if she was trying to spare me and show me it wouldn’t be so bad but we both ended up saying, “I’ll go,” at the same time, causing both Carmen and her mother to laugh. Melody just gave us a strange look and shook her head, trying not to smile.

“Well, let’s go in alphabetical order and start with Crystal then,” Dr. Diaz offered once she had finished laughing. Then she pointed to the room across the hall from her dorm room and told me, “You can go right in and undress Crystal. There are some paper gowns for you to change into, or if you feel more comfortable you can go without. We have all kinds here, and I know that Nymphs, Huldra, and Succubae are more comfortable naked, so things are a little more relaxed than at my practice.”

I nodded, tried to swallow the lump of fear in my throat, and headed into the room that Carmen’s mother had indicated. Inside was a fairly standard-looking examination room with an examination table covered in a paper sheet, various medical tools laid out on a countertop, a supply cabinet, and a door that led to the room’s bathroom. There was also a curtain along the back that hid the rear of the large room. I could feel Divine magic coming from behind that curtain and it piqued my curiosity as I shed my clothes.

I didn’t bother with the gown. I would be more than happy to be without clothes, and the anxiety they caused me, during my examination. Besides, it wasn’t like she wasn’t going to be seeing everything anyway if this was a full physical. So when Dr. Diaz walked in a few minutes later I was sitting naked on the exam table waiting for her.

“So, Crystal, do you have any questions or concerns before we begin?” she asked.

I asked the only question that came to mind at the moment. “Ummm… what’s behind the curtain?”

Dr. Diaz laughed and looked toward the curtain in question. “I meant about your health, but that is a fair question. It’s an emergency operating room, and it’s kept sterile with Divine magic. I’m not a surgeon but I do have a few who work with Paranormal patients on call if anything happens to any of you that I can’t heal or I’m not qualified to patch up.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I said thoughtfully as I tried not to freak out about what was coming.

The doctor reached over to put a gentle hand on my shoulder. “You can relax Crystal, your mother let me in on the real story. She thought that I should know as your doctor, and I won’t be telling anyone else. Doctor-patient confidentiality and all that.”

I let go of a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding in relief. “Umm… thanks, it’s a little embarrassing and awkward.”

“I would imagine so, Crystal. You have a lot of adjustments to make and there’s a lot about your new self that you’ll need to get used to. Has anyone talked to you about what you can expect?” Dr. Diaz asked with a concerned look.

“Yeah, I know all about the allergies and compulsions and stuff,” I quickly affirmed.

“That’s not exactly what I meant, Crystal. Has anyone talked to you about sex and what that means for your new body?”

I felt my face turning that bright red again. “Well, yeah, I know that as a Nymph I’m going to be craving sex pretty much constantly.”

Apparently, that wasn’t what she meant either as what followed was a very long birds and bees type talk as it applied to me now. It was the most humiliating, uncomfortable, and embarrassing long awkward moment in my life, though it didn’t stay in the top spot long. That crown soon belonged to the physical that followed that lecture. I won’t bore you with the details of that since she checked about everything that my old doctor would have and a few things that I’d never needed to be checked before. I will tell you that the metal monstrosity that she used to check between my legs was uncomfortable on so many levels. At least it wasn’t cold, but that could have just been because I don’t feel the cold.

Once Dr. Diaz had finished the exam and pronounced me to be in seemingly perfect health she told me, “You can probably expect to get your first period within the next few weeks and I want you to get this prescription filled while you’re out this afternoon. As sexually active as Nymphs are I want you on birth control starting today, even if you don’t plan on having sex. Your urges could become too much to resist and it could happen suddenly. You should also use condoms whenever possible. I’m not worried about you catching any STDs I can get rid of those with purification spells, I can’t magic away an unexpected pregnancy though so I want you taking precautions.”

“Yes Ma’am,” I mumbled, wishing that I could turn invisible again. It would seem that I wasn’t panicked enough though and it probably wouldn’t have stopped the serious look she was giving me anyway.

“You’ll be fine, Crystal. If you need any advice or have any questions about anything, my door is always open. Now, I’ll let you get dressed and then we can send your sister in,” Dr. Diaz said before leaving me alone in the room.

While Jessica and Melody were left to Dr. Diaz’s tender mercies Carmen guided me back down the hall but instead of taking me to the common room to wait like I figured she was going to she stopped to knock on one of the doors. The door was answered several minutes later by Rhissa, who was wearing only a satin bathrobe. It looked like the pretty blonde Huldra had put it on in a hurry but she smiled when she opened the door. “What can I do for you, Carmen?” Then she noticed me. “Oh! Hey, cousin! I was hoping that we’d get a chance to talk away from the chaos that is breakfast here.”

“Cousin?” I asked, my eyebrows rising in interest.

Carmen apparently had a purpose in mind though so she quickly answered Rhissa’s question. “Hey, Rhiss, since you offered to take the twins and Melody shopping today, I thought I’d leave Crystal with you. Mom is still looking over the others but Jessica mentioned doing something with Crystal’s hair since it grew quite a bit when she Manifested.”

That was an understatement, my hair was thick, wavy, and down to the middle of my thighs and it was constantly getting in the way. I was used to having really short hair and, though I liked how pretty long hair made me look, having it that long was a pain in the ass unless it was braided like it was at the moment, and even then it felt heavy. The Huldra turned her smile on me and nodded, “That is a bit much, Crystal. Come on in and we can get to know each other a bit while I get ready. I know the best hairdresser in town for Paranormals and some of the best clothing stores for us Fey types too.”

“I’ll leave them in your hands then, Rhiss,” Carmen said with a nod. “I’d go with all of you but I promised Sorcha that we could take Ashe out for some exercise today, and we’re two of the only people she will let get physical with her. I’ll see all of you when you get back.”

With that, Carmen left and Rhissa practically dragged me into her room. “So, you only Manifested recently? A bit of a late bloomer, huh? Ice isn’t really a common element for Nymph’s though so it’s no surprise. At least Huldras are all aligned to Earth so we Manifest pretty early. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to your new self soon.” She hardly gave me a chance to get a word in edgewise as she chattered along.

She stripped out of her robe with no shame whatsoever and then started to look for something to wear. Except for her cow-like tail swishing behind her playfully she looked very human and had a very nice body, though I couldn’t help but wonder if she was taking her time so I could get a good look. She had long sexy legs, wide well-rounded hips, a perfect heart-shaped bottom, a slender waist, large firm breasts, and as I had noticed at breakfast, her face was as pretty as my own.

Between her taking her time and the very familiar scent in the room, one that had filled my own room that very morning, I found myself biting my lip and clamping my thighs tightly together from the fast-growing flames of desire being fanned within my loins. I tried to focus my mind on something else, anything else, and jumped on her earlier greeting. “So… uhh… why’d you call me cousin, Rhissa?” I asked as I carefully tried to control my breathing.

Rhissa looked over her shoulder from where she was bent over her dresser looking through her panties thoughtfully. Oh my God, I was so damn horny and I was wondering if she was intentionally teasing me or just that open as she pulled a bit of hair aside to reveal a pointed ear and replied, “Well we’re not really sisters yet but the main reason is that Huldras are an offshoot of the Nymph species, didn’t you know that? We have tails, we’re all aligned to Earth, and we don’t share your compulsion to be close to our element, but everything else is basically the same. We have the same issues and needs.”

The way that she smiled and winked as she stressed the last word made me flush. “You are evil,” I told her as she finally slipped into her panties and looked for a bra to go with it.

To my surprise, she came over and hugged me and I thought that my nipples were going to explode out of my bra and dress as her breasts pressed against mine and she admitted, “Maybe a little. But I also wanted to make sure you can restrain yourself before I take you out in public. I know how hard it can be after you first Manifest and while you are still getting used to your new nature and the constant need for sex. I didn’t have someone to watch over me and ended up doing something stupid, so I don’t want the same thing happening to you. You should be fine though, at least for short outings. I’d recommend trying to take the edge off whenever you can though, and if you ever need me then my door is always open, Cuz.”

“Umm… thanks, Rhiss,” I managed to say without sounding too much like an obscene phone call. “Why are you taking us shopping though? I would have thought Mom and Aunt Merry would be doing that.”

“They thought that you and Jessica might be more comfortable shopping with someone closer to your own age,” she admitted as she let me go and started putting her bra on. “I only turned nineteen in November so we’re pretty close in age. Plus, it’ll give us time to get to know one another better since when Tiffani and Pandora get married you and Jessica will technically be my sisters.”

I stared at her as she reached back to fasten her bra straps, my desire now somewhat lessened by the shock and confusion. “What do you mean we’ll be sisters?”

The Huldra shrugged as she stepped into an ankle-length black cotton skirt and offered, “Pandora is my adoptive mother. I never knew who my father was and, with my mother being a Huldra too, I guess it could have been anyone. My mother had no living relatives, so when she died when I was eleven I got put into foster care. The family I was living with were normies and when I Manifested when I was thirteen they didn’t take it well. They hid me away and wanted to have my tail surgically removed but I ran away.”

I frowned and nodded. “Melody had to run away from her foster parents when she manifested too.”

“That’s a danger of being a kid of a Paranormal who isn’t registered with the PDA. If my mother were registered and they knew about her then the PDA would have gotten involved and made sure I was placed with people who were Paranormals, or at least familiar with them,” Rhissa said with a sigh.

“So, what happened?” I asked, though not sure if I should have, as she pulled an emerald silk blouse over her head and then straightened her hair.

Rhissa had a pained look on her face and a haunted look in her deep brown eyes as she replied, “By the time I ran away I was going near-crazy from the need to have sex and I fell in with the wrong crowd, a Paranormal street gang called the Nightkin. They whored me out and I didn’t even know that I had gotten pregnant until I miscarried. It broke me, and I hated myself. I was fourteen and addicted to more than just sex when Pandora found me and took me in. She and your mom helped me come to terms with who and what I am, taught me self-control, got me off the drugs, started me back in school, and Pandora officially adopted me when I was sixteen. When I turned eighteen they let me start working at the club.”

I found myself unable to resist the urge to hug her and wrapped her up in my arms, squeezing her tight. I didn’t know what to say though. Finally, she was the one who broke the silence as she hugged me back. “That’s why I don’t want you going out unless you can handle it and why I’m going to keep an eye on you while we’re out, Crystal. I don’t want you repeating my mistakes. Now, are you going to be ready to go out when the others are ready, or do you need some alone time first?”

“I… I think I’m good,” I told her honestly. To be fair, her story had killed my desire for sex for the moment and I thought it would be a long time before I was ready to give in to my urges with someone other than myself or maybe Melody. When that thought popped into my head I once again found myself flushing in embarrassment. “Yeah, I’m good to go, do you have a car though? I can’t really drive mine legally yet.”

As much as I wanted to I couldn’t drive the Charger again until I got proper Alberta plates for it and I couldn’t do that until I could take the new ownership and registration papers to the government offices the next day. They would be closed today since it was Sunday. I could buy the insurance for it while we were out, but I figured that I might as well wait for Monday to get winter tires and a security system installed. That meant that we only really needed to concentrate on buying clothes and necessities while we were out today.

“I have one but it only seats two,” Rhissa said before shrugging. “I’m sure our mothers won’t mind if we use the truck though. It’s one of those crew cabs with a canopy, we use it to get stuff for the club that our suppliers don’t carry or stuff that’s easier to get at the source like Lana’s sewing stuff. It’s hard to find good Paranormal suppliers for businesses like this. The kitchen has no problems since there are a lot of Paranormal restaurants and cafes but we only recently found a good place to order our alcohol from. Most clubs like this for Paranormals are pretty sleazy and operate illegally but we’re a high-class place and the business is registered with the PDA so that everything is above board.”

“So, that’s why we’re not allowed in the club during business hours?” I guessed.

“Yup,” she agreed as she led me to the door. “When you’re eighteen you can, but not until then or we could lose our license. Once you’re of age you could choose to work in the club part-time until you finish school. You don’t have to be an entertainer like me, there’s always room for kitchen help, wait staff, or bartenders. If you do want to do what our moms and I do, one of us would be happy to teach you what you’ll need to know. It’s a good gig for our kind, we get paid to get naked, we’re naturally graceful, and we have the option of having sex in a safe environment and getting paid for that too.”

We stepped out in the hallway but we hadn’t been talking for long so Melody was still waiting down the hall for Dr. Diaz to finish with my sister. “I… umm… don’t know about that. I’ll admit, a lot about that sounds good and I probably wouldn’t have even considered that before Manifesting. It kinda feels like I’d be giving in to the Nymph stereotype though. Taking off my clothes, dancing, and having sex for money isn’t exactly what I pictured myself doing with my life. I’m not really even comfortable living here knowing what goes on downstairs,” I admitted to Rhissa as I looked at the floor.

“You need to let go of those hang-ups and preconceptions about what we do, Crystal. You’re thinking like a human,” the pretty blonde Huldra advised as she led me down the hallway. “You’re a Nymph now. Like me, your Mom, Pandora, and half the entertainers here you have needs and talents. Speaking for myself, I’m very good at what I do and I feel very fulfilled doing it.”

Seeing the look of doubt on my face she stopped, put a hand on my shoulder, and looked me right in the eyes sympathetically as she said, “Crystal, there really aren’t many regular jobs that girls like us can handle comfortably; working all day in clothes, fighting our urges, and being around a bunch of judgmental normies while wanting to get naked and give in to those urges would drive you crazy and you probably know it as well as I do.”

As much as I didn’t want to admit it, she was right. The few times that I had spent among large groups of normies I had just wanted to get naked and have sex the whole time and having to do that for some minimum wage job would leave me miserable, and probably too distracted to do the job well. The Dicken sisters had told me that the only time they actually had to wear clothes in the club was while on stage, and that was only to take them off. That was very appealing, given the anxiety that wearing clothes caused me. There was nothing saying that I had to offer sex either, but I would probably enjoy it once I got used to the idea.

The last remnant of the old Seth in my head was screaming out that the whole idea was wrong and dirty. A stripper and a whore, of all things. I was starting to realize that the old me was a prude though, and that just didn’t mesh well with my Nymph nature. This might be the last profession I would have ever thought of taking up while I was still Seth, and I probably wouldn’t have even considered it a possibility before my morning exercise, but then I had never given any real thought to my future before. Sure, I thought maybe I could work on cars, but nothing was stopping me from pursuing that in my spare time. I was torn as I actually considered the possibility.

Rhissa seemed to understand, or at least suspect the turmoil in my mind. She reached out to hug me again and when she let go she advised, “What you do for a living doesn’t have to define you. Stop focusing on how other people might view being an adult entertainer as a bad thing and start thinking about how it could be a good thing for you. Sure, some people see what we do as immoral but those same people would probably want to kill us just for being different, so why should what they think matter? What other people think isn’t important only how you feel about yourself at the end of the day, and nobody who comes into this building is going to look down on you for doing something that you enjoy and have a gift for.”

“So, you think that I should do it?” I said, still conflicted.

She shook her head and started us down the hall again. “No, Crystal. I think it’s a good option for you but you need to decide what you want to do for yourself, just like I did. All that I’m saying is, don’t discount the possibility just because you’ve been given a negative impression of what we do, find out for yourself. It would be foolish to turn away from something that could be fun and make you happy because some people see it as wrong. We’re a legal club, staffed by good and honest people, and we all take care of one another. Anyone who thinks that’s wrong needs to take their head out of their ass.”

I sighed in resignation as I turned to look at her, feeling like I was in a catch-22. “Okay I see your points, but the only way to really find out for myself would be to do it.”

“Not necessarily,” Rhissa said with a shake of her head. “Once you’re eighteen you can come to watch some of the shows and get a feel for what we do. Sex you can experience for yourself, so long as you’re responsible about it. And if you’re interested in finding out whether you’d be good at dancing and enjoy it, you can always ask one of us for dancing and pole dancing lessons while the club is closed. You wouldn’t even need to be eighteen for that and it’s really good exercise. There’s no reason for you to commit to doing anything unless you feel like it would be a good fit for you.”

She was right, and I felt kind of stupid for not seeing that before as I said, “You win, I’m still a little unsure about all of this but I’ll try to be open-minded about it, even if I decide that it’s not the right career for me.”

“That’s all any of us can or will ask, Crystal,” she said, putting an arm around me as we entered the common room where Mom, Pandora, and Sukoha were still watching TV. Then she called out, “Hey, Mom! Can we use the truck when I take the girls shopping? Crystal shouldn’t use her car yet and with as much clothes and stuff as they’re going to need we could probably use the space.”

Mom and Pandora both looked up and the latter quickly nodded. “The keys are where they usually are, Rhissa. Remember that Merriwynd hasn’t had time to start training Melody yet though, so we want you Jessica, and Crystal all carrying para-mace. We thought of getting someone to make you all pendants to cast glamours over you but that much active Divine magic on a group of four girls would just attract more attention from other Paranormals so you’ll be better off using more mundane ways to hide your non-human features.” I couldn’t help but notice her glance at my mother when she mentioned getting someone to make glamour pendants.

“Stay together and at the mall, and don’t go anywhere else, we don’t want any snatchers trying to grab you and Crystal for a quick sale to the Chimera Syndicate or some seedy whorehouse in the Caverns if they figure out what you are. We might never get you back,” my mother added with a concerned frown. It wasn’t hard to see that as much as she wanted to not crowd us, she was worried about our safety.

I knew what para-mace was, of course, it’s basically a type of pepper spray that contains garlic, vervain, sea salt, silver nitrate, holy water, and wolfsbane, and it’s enchanted with Divine magic to give it a little extra punch. It might not kill or cause permanent harm but it’s extremely painful for any of the nastier Paranormals aligned to Death. I also had a general idea of what the Chimera Syndicate was since Melody had enlightened us and I wanted nothing to do with them. However, I had no idea what or where the Caverns were. “Ummm… what are the Caverns?” I asked uncertainly, not liking at all the venomous way that my mother had spat out that name.

“It’s where Mom found me,” Rhissa admitted. “The Caverns is an underground city under the heart of downtown Edmonton, built by Goblins. The really nasty Paranormals and criminals live there, and the gangs and the Chimera Syndicate rule. It is not a place that you want to visit. We’ll be careful and stay in public places.”

“See that you do,” Pandora said with a grim nod as she searched her purse and then handed Rhissa a gold-colored credit card. “Use the card for any purchases over fifty dollars. Crystal, don’t take too much of that stash of cash that Merriwynd mentioned with you, maybe a stack of twenties each. We’re going to see about getting a friend of ours to take that cash and write you checks to open bank accounts with tomorrow. Opening accounts or shopping with that much cash would draw too much attention to you. Dannick might be a scoundrel, but he’s an honest one and he’s done this kind of thing for us before.”

I made a mental note to wait until the accounts could be opened to buy my car insurance as I said, “It sounds like you have a lot of friends like that. Melody had twenty thousand in cash of her own saved up, could this Dannick do the same for her?”

“Of course, my little snowflake,” Mom said, making me flush in embarrassment.

“Moooom!” Wait, why was that in stereo? Oh, it seemed that Jessica had chosen that moment to show up. She smirked at me and teased, “At least it’s not me getting the cutesy pet name and being embarrassed, that shade of red is cute on you though.”

I tried to give my sister a dirty look, but I was probably too pink-cheeked to make myself look at all threatening as I warned, “That can be arranged, Sis. Just wait until the next time I catch you in bunny form. I will name you George, and I will hug you, and pet you, and squeeze…”

“Okay, stop. I get it. That got old when we were like fourteen and it gives me the heebee jeebees when you do that and stroke my fur the wrong way,” the Púca grumbled, cutting me off. I returned her smirk from earlier, satisfied that I had won this round.

“Snowflake, Honey-bunny, you should both get ready to go. Remember that Rhissa and Melody are in charge, so don’t leave their side for any reason and stay in public places.” Mom’s voice was teasing at first but there was definite concern written all over her face as she stood up to wrap Jessica and me both up in a big hug as we both once again gave an exaggerated ‘Mooooom’ in unison. Still, as embarrassing as these new pet names were, it was nice to know that she cared and was worried for our safety.

Twenty minutes later when Dr. Diaz had finally set Melody free we were ready to go and just had to give Melody a stack of twenties to add to her massive purse, to join whatever other items she stored there to be prepared for anything. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know what half the stuff she kept in there was, given her former occupation. We just needed to wait on her since the rest of us were ready to go.

Jessica and I had changed out of our overly sexy and possibly age-inappropriate dresses into our clothes from the day before to blend in better and both had our ears carefully hidden, mine under my powder blue beanie and Jessica’s under her black beanie and the hood of one of her oversized hoodies. The hoodie would have been a bit tight in the chest but she kept it unzipped and aside from having the hood it was also long enough in the back to cover the slight bulge of her cottontail in her jeans since the hem went as far as her thighs. She also had her contacts in, though she planned on looking for a lighter blue pair to match my eye color while we were out.

Rhissa had her tail hidden by her long skirt of course, and she was wearing a wool winter cap that covered her ears nicely. She also wore a bulky winter coat that she planned to shed when we hit the mall, but she wanted us to think about winter jackets and stuff too. I didn’t really need one, but it would make for good camouflage since, even though I couldn’t feel it, winter in Edmonton is supposed to be cold. For the moment I wore the leather jacket that Jessica had gotten me for our birthday.

Soon we were all piling into the white extended cab truck and ready to go. Inside our purses, Jessica, Rhissa, and I all carried para-mace cans and a large stack of twenty-dollar bills. The moment that we left the illusion that encased Pandora’s Box, Melody was on alert, her eyes searching everywhere for possible threats. In her cute little Chinese human form, it was difficult to remember that she had grown up on the streets and used to kill people for a living. I felt safe with her though as we shared the back seat, she wrapped her arm protectively around me, and we drove off toward what would be a very interesting shopping trip.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 10 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 10: Shopping

“Oh. My. God. It’s soooo big! I’m not sure if I can take it,” I gasped in wonder as I gaped at what stood before me in a mixture of horror and wide-eyed awe. “Okay Crystal, you can do this, just take it a little bit at a time and before you know it you’ll forget all about how intimidating it looks,” I tried to convince myself, taking a deep breath and turning to my companions as I bit my lip nervously.

“Geeze, Sis. Could you sound any more like a porno? Would you like to try again? I’m sure there are some guys around not looking at us yet,” Jessica said with a roll of her eyes. From the way her lips were twitching I was pretty sure she was trying not to laugh at me.

I really need to start thinking before I open my mouth. I felt my face turning that familiar shade of red again as I realized what I had said and just how dirty it sounded, especially coming from a Nymph. Jessica was right too, nearly every guy nearby had their eyes on me, and that was saying something since Jess was pretty much identical to me and we were with Rhissa too.

I would have thought Melody would have glammed it up a bit hanging out with three hotties like us but she was still going for her pretty, yet understated, Chinese girl look. I guessed that she wanted people to not give her a second look and to underestimate her. She was being mostly quiet too, except when she had something to say, for the same reason I think.

So, since out of the three hot girls in our group I was the one who had opened my big mouth and unintentionally let raw sex drip out in a voice loud enough to carry, I was getting all the attention. Having all that attention on me was affecting me too; I could feel my panties getting damp even as my cheeks burned in embarrassment and my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest. Just great. Now I was mortified, anxious, and horny. Good going, me.

I took a nervous step back and nervously squeaked, “Umm… I’m not really sure I’m ready for this much mall yet, and there are so many people here. What if we see someone we know? Maybe we should re-think this idea.”

“Relax Crystal, we’ll try to make it quick and just go about our business like everyone else. Focus on the task, not the crowds. It’s not like any of you know anyone here in town who would want to stop and socialize anyway. I know where all the stores we’re going to are so we won’t need to wander around. We’ll be done and home in no time,” Rhissa said encouragingly.

Jessica put her arm around me and nodded as she agreed in a near-whisper. “Yeah, Sis, this is gonna be fun and we need clothes and stuff. You need to get used to being around people anyway, so you might as well start now. We’re in one of the biggest malls in the world in an entirely different city so let’s try to enjoy it and ignore the rude staring people. Even if we did run into someone we used to know, they’d never recognize us, especially you. Besides, other than maybe some of the people who work at the club, what are the odds of us running into someone we know here of all places? We’re more likely to win the lottery.”

They were both right, of course. I tried to ignore all of the people except for my companions and took another deep breath to steady myself as I noticed that a couple of guys seemed to be getting over their apprehension and coming toward us. “Let’s go and get this over with.”

Rhissa nodded and started to lead us through the mall to our first destination before our admirers could make any moves. As I said, the mall is huge and as we wandered along the first floor Rhissa told us about it and pointed out anything interesting since it would have taken us days to see everything. In addition to having over eight hundred stores, West Edmonton Mall also had an eighteen-hole mini-golf course, bowling alley, skating rink, aquarium, waterpark, amusement park, and two hotels. Only about a dozen of the businesses were geared toward Paranormals though, and each of them had powerful spells to keep the normies from noticing them or taking an interest in them.

Our first stop turned out to be a salon called Shear Bliss, where we were greeted by a pale woman with long straight blonde hair and deep brown eyes. She wore a sleeveless ankle-length green wool dress and as she walked toward us I could see hooves rather than feet peeking out from underneath. I thought that I could pick out a faint Scottish accent as she gave a million-watt smile and said, “Rhiss! I wasn’t expectin’ you back for at least a few weeks since you were just in on Thursday. I’ll assume that you’re not here for you today then, so how can I help all of you?”

“Heather, I’d like you to meet Crystal, Jessica, and Melody. The twins here are Tiffani’s daughters and Melody will be working as a bouncer in the club soon. Girls, this is Heather McKinnon, the owner of this salon and the best hairdresser and nail technician in Edmonton.” Rhissa provided. Then, seeing the direction of my gaze she explained, “She’s a Glaistig, Crystal. They’re a lot like Fauns but they come from Scotland and they’re all female.”

Heather looked over us and smiled. “It’s nice to meet all of you. So, Tiff’s girls are ya? You’re both Nymphs then? Interestin’ colorin’, quite lovely.”

Jess shook her head in response. “No, our dad was a Púca. I took after him and Crystal only Manifested recently so she’s still trying to adjust. Her hair really grew out though and she could use a haircut, it’s really long and a bit uneven in spots. Melody and I can both shapeshift our hair but Crystal doesn’t have that luxury.”

“It would be a pleasure to work on such lovely hair, did you just want the hair done then, Dearie?” the Glaistig asked as she pulled me toward one of the chairs.

“I was thinking the works, Heather,” Rhissa said as she walked alongside Heather. “You know how vain we Nymphs and Huldras can be about our appearances, so she’ll probably want to look her best. Tiffani suggested getting her ears pierced too, and a makeup lesson with a focus on what products will be safe for her allergies since she’s new to this. You still sell the Fey-safe makeup kits, right?”

As I was sat down in the chair I saw Heather nodding. “Aye, an’ she’s a winter so I should have plenty in stock, I don’t get to sell many for girls with coloring as light as hers.”

“A winter? Is that some sort of Snow Nymph joke?” I wondered, my brow furrowing in confusion.

Heather laughed but shook her head as she began to unweave my braid. “No, Dearie. It just means that pure colors are going to look best on you, deepened or cool colors like blues, greens, and purples. Reds, black and darker shades would work for you as well.”

“Oh,” I managed and then stayed quiet as she finished unbraiding my hair and looked at what she had to work with.

I could see that big smile again in the mirror as she exclaimed. “Such beautiful long hair! It’s so thick and wavy. That should keep your ears well covered when you wear your hair loose. It’s very eye-catching too, especially with your eye color. I’ll even it out and lose a bit of the length, but I really think that you should consider keepin’ it long.”

In the end, my vanity won out. Heather had washed, conditioned, and evened it out and now rather than falling to the middle of my thighs, it was only down to my hips making it slightly lighter and less in the way while still looking a lot nicer on me than a short style would. She also showed me several different ways I could style it at that length to keep looking my best.

While Heather had been working on my hair, one of her employees, a very pretty Sylph with hair as white as my own had given me a manicure and pedicure. It was a little weird having someone playing around with my hands and feet, but it was kind of relaxing as well, and soon both my toenails and fingernails were painted a glittery ice blue that matched my eyes. The last touch was the piercings, damn did those hurt, two silver-hued studs in each earlobe and a dangling snowflake on a chain hanging from my newly-pierced navel.

I hadn’t planned on the latter, well I hadn’t really planned on anything more than the hair, but Rhissa was right about the vanity thing. I wanted to look my best and I remembered thinking about how hot girls with pierced navels were when I was a guy, hell I still found them hot. Since my current top was showing off my midriff anyway I wanted to look sexy while doing it. Melody seemed to like it too, which pleased me immensely.

After that was done the Glaistig found one of the afore-mentioned makeup kits. Seriously, it was like a big pink toolbox, almost as big as the one I used for some of my tools when I was Seth, and it was filled with stuff that I had no idea how to use. Heather told me what each product was for, that she sold a lot of the products at the salon if I ran out, and that she would give me a beginner lesson for a simple look.

I watched carefully as she worked on my face, hoping that I could replicate what she was doing later. At least the lip-gloss didn’t look too hard to do, and the lavender color looked good with my coloring. As she worked she explained what she was doing, why, and how it would enhance my looks. She also encouraged me to practice on my own and to learn from the dancers at the club.

When I was done I noted that Jessica had had her nails and makeup done as well and had a pink makeup box that matched my own. She had wanted us to still match, well other than our clothes, and had altered her hair length and style to match mine. She had also had her stylist do her nails and makeup the same as well while I was getting worked on. Unlike Melody who could alter her form to look like anyone or anything and even emulate makeup, Jessica could only change her physical appearance and, like me, had to get that sort of thing done just like the normies. I was a little pissed that she hadn’t had to go through any pain to get piercings though, she just created a hole in her navel and slipped her new adornment in with no discomfort.

By the time we left Shear Bliss, it was time for lunch but I was really happy with my appearance and since Jess and I still matched, except for our clothes, we were getting a lot of attention as we walked into the nearest food court. Since Melody didn’t want us to separate we all got our lunches from Subway, it was easier than waiting through four different lineups and we could each find something that appealed to us and worked with our diets. I really enjoyed my fully loaded grilled chicken sub and iced tea, though I could barely sit still being around so many people.

After lunch was when the real shopping got started. First, we went to a large pharmacy where Rhissa insisted that I fill my new birth control prescription. Jessica, of course, asked about getting me condoms as well once she found out about my new prescription but Rhissa merely shook her head and smiled as she informed us, “We get condoms in bulk at the club and they’re not the latex type so they don’t bother our allergies. I can show Crystal where to grab some for her purse and her room.”

With that, we moved on to other necessities that my sister had in mind, getting enough for Melody Jessica, and me. Shampoos, conditioners, body wash, loofas, brushes, combs, lotions, creams, toothbrushes, floss, toothpaste, hair ties, scrunchies, and a bunch of other stuff that I would never have thought of for my new daily beauty regimen all found their way into the cart. My sister and Rhissa were shopping machines and seemed to know a lot more about this kind of stuff, and what was allergy-safe, than Melody or I did. We just went along with it and followed along, holding hands.

I cringed a bit as we got to the tampons, panty-liners, and such, especially since Jess and Rhiss made a point of making certain that I knew what brands wouldn’t cause an allergic reaction in us. It was bad enough thinking about actually needing those products but the thought of putting a tampon inside myself, especially one that may cause an allergic reaction, was certainly cringe-worthy. I might be comfortable with my body and starting to get more comfortable with the idea of sex but that was not something that I was looking forward to.

I was already tired and we hadn’t even gotten to shopping for clothes yet. That was soon to be rectified though as Rhissa led us to her favorite clothing and shoe stores for Paranormals. The first of those was a clothing store geared toward Paranormal teens called, Cloud Nine. The owner, Braedan, was an actual Angel with big white feathery wings and everything. He was also the most handsome man I had ever met; muscular with a handsome face, square jaw, shoulder-length blond hair, and these intense cornflower blue eyes that a girl could get lost in. I know this because I did.

“Down, Crystal, he’s married,” Rhissa told me with a sigh as I bit my lip, tightened my thighs together, and tried very hard not to throw myself at him like some lovesick schoolgirl.

“He’s not that good-looking,” Melody said with a disgusted snort. “And he’s an Angel, they’re almost all self-righteous dickheads.” Awww, she was jealous. I took all that desire that I was feeling and leaned over to kiss the half-Demon passionately enough that we started going at it pretty hot and heavy. I was really turned on when we were interrupted by a polite cough. Oh well, I needed new panties anyway.

Unfortunately, they didn’t sell undergarments so that was going to have to wait. What they did sell was comfortable everyday clothes, most of which were made from natural fibers and dyes, and Braedan also magically altered clothes and other things. For a reasonable fee, he was able to alter the color of Jessica’s contacts to match my eye color and modify the leather jacket that Jess had gotten for Seth while we looked at clothes. When he was finished the jacket wasn’t too big, tight in the chest, long in the sleeves, or loose in other places. It felt thicker and sturdier and had a feminine cut that hugged my figure while keeping the badass biker look.

I was pretty happy by the time we were finished there. Not only could I keep the jacket from Jess and have it fit properly but Jess and I had gotten several pairs of jeans in various styles that wouldn’t bother our allergies and some nice casual tops and skirts as well. We could even match in a few of the combinations if we wanted to do the twin thing and fuck with people. We planned to get several more similar outfits and dresses for that purpose during our shopping trip. I blame Jess, it was her idea, the mischievous little bunny.

We did some major damage to Pandora’s gold card throughout the afternoon as we went to each of Rhissa’s favorite stores and attempted to get a good start on building new wardrobes for Jess, Melody, and me. We went to some of the normie stores as well for simple things like accessories and our new cell phones. We had also found a nice black leather purse that went well with my jacket and a pair of black leather knee-high boots with a two-inch heel that fastened with a series of steel buckles in front. I wouldn’t say that they were comfortable since wearing anything was giving me major anxiety but at least wearing them didn’t hurt my feet as we continued our trek through the mall.

Melody was fairly easy to shop for since she preferred comfort and didn’t have our allergy problems, but even Jess and I were finding a lot that would look good on us and be comfortable for us to wear. Rhissa was a big help too and steered us toward some of the sexier stuff that she couldn’t wear because she had a tail to hide. She shared my opinion that if I was going to be stuck being uncomfortable wearing clothes anyway I may as well look good.

Looking for lingerie was a bit awkward for me at first but not for the reason that you might think. I was perfectly fine with my body and I had no issues showing off my selections for the others to ask their opinions since I’d much rather be naked. It was as I caught Melody staring at me in a skimpy and sexy silk and lace lavender bra and panty set that I realized that everything that I had chosen was meant to be seen in rather than covered up. I didn’t want anything plain and functional if I was going to be forced to wear undergarments, I was vain enough to want to show off.

I was still silently considering the ramifications of that realization as we entered Rabbit’s Foot, the last of the stores that Rhissa wanted to hit. It was the only Paranormal shoe store in the mall and we still needed to get proper footwear. “Looks like your kind of store, Jess,” I teased my sister as we entered.

“Actually, it probably is,” Rhissa offered as Jessica blew me a raspberry. “This store is owned by a Púca family and, as the name suggests, they’re rabbits.”

We were greeted by a raven-haired woman with black rabbit ears and golden eyes. She was wearing a black velvet dress and she looked to be in her mid-twenties, though I suspected that she was likely quite a bit older. Rhissa introduced her as Sandra, the owner of the store. She seemed happy to meet another Púca, especially after hearing that she was Tiffani’s kid. It seemed that my mom and Pandora had a really good reputation among other local Paranormal business owners, which was a little weird to me since they run a strip club/whore house.

“Tiffani never mentioned having any daughters, especially twins. How old are you girls?” Sandra asked with a friendly smile.

“We’re almost eighteen and we’ve lived with our Dad since they divorced when we were little,” Jessica smoothly explained. “They didn’t want us exposed to her lifestyle until we were old enough to understand. Dad died recently so we came to live with Mom, at least until we finish school. We lost almost everything in the fire so Mom sent us and Melody out with Rhissa to get new clothes and other necessities.”

“Will you be going to St. Michelle’s then?” Sandra inquired. “All four of my daughters went there and the shapeshifting teacher there is excellent. My niece will be attending there in January as well since she’s staying with me for the foreseeable future.”

My sister and I looked at one another, shrugged, and then spoke as one, “Yeah, that’s what we were told.”

The elder Púca broke into a smile. “I’ll have to introduce you all then. Rose! Could you come out here, please?! There are some girls here that I’d like you to meet!”

“Okay, Aunt Sandy! I’m coming!” we heard from the back of the store. A moment later a very pretty girl appeared from the back of the store. She was close to our age with a strong resemblance to Sandra, including the long black hair, golden eyes, and bunny features.

As soon as she was within conversational distance, Sandra began to make the introductions. While she was doing that though, both Rose and Jessica were sniffing at the air and a baleful glare suddenly passed between them. “Rose?! I knew that you weren’t a normal bunny, you scene-stealing hack!”

“Jingles?! And here I thought you were just a dumb bunny, you certainly acted like one. I would have thought you’d be happy to have me out of the competition and beating you for all the good roles, but now you’re stalking me?!”

“Acting is the keyword there, unlike you, I can play a role! Why in the hell would I want to stalk you, you bitch?! I’m only here because our dad died and we were sent to live with our Mom! If I knew that you were going to be living anywhere in this city I would have preferred to be homeless!” Jess snapped right back at her.

“I hate you!”

“Oh yeah?! Well, I hate you more!”

“Nobody could ever hate someone as much as I hate you!”

We all stared in a mix of confusion and shock, and the pair seemed to have forgotten about the rest of us as they shouted back and forth, their faces flushed bright red. I was just about to intervene and try to break them up or cool them off when Rose reached out for Jess. Instead of trying to punch her lights out like I had been half-expecting though, she planted a huge kiss on her. “I would have done that sooner if I knew that you weren’t just a dumb bunny,” Rose said breathily when she broke their lip-lock. “Oh God, are you as turned on as I am right now?”

Jessica’s emotions were written all over her face for anyone who knew her well enough to read them. She was angry, confused, worried, and indeed very turned on. “More,” she replied, her breath catching in her throat and making it come out almost like a moan. Then they started the first period in a serious game of tonsil hockey, their hands roaming over one another’s thankfully still clothed bodies. And she accused me of sounding like a porno earlier?

“Girls! Break it up please,” Sandra said sternly in an attempt to interrupt them.

“Yes! For God’s sake, think of the horny Nymph in the room!” Watching them was turning me on even more than I was before and that disturbed me greatly since my sister was one of the participants. “No! Bad Nymph! She’s your sister! Well, she isn’t actually blood-related… Nope! Not going there! Sister! Eww!”

It wasn’t until everyone had turned to look at me that I realized that I had said that first part out loud, very loud. I once again turned a bright shade of Crystal Red TM, yup I’m totally trademarking that color, I use it often enough. Seeing all those eyes on my very bright face I turned around to go explore the store further and muttered, “I’m gonna go look at shoes, that’s why we’re supposed to be here.”

I had gotten to the shelves near the back of the store and I was looking at a pair of pink and blue canvas sneakers and testing them for a possible allergic reaction when Melody approached, placed a hand gently on my shoulder, and then moved that arm around my waist as she asked, “What’s the problem, Crystal? Rhissa thought that you might be overwhelmed after seeing that and was going to come to talk to you, but I offered to come instead. You’ve been controlling yourself pretty well until now. I can understand being horny after watching that, I was too, but something has you upset.”

“That was my sister getting her tonsils sucked,” I said as if that answered everything.

“Jealous?” the half-Demon inquired. “That was some kiss, I thought that they were going to have angry lesbian bunny hate-sex right there on the floor until they were interrupted, though I suppose there is still time, and they could have killed one other instead. I’m always happy to help you out if you need a little sugar of your own though.”

“I’m not jealous!” I snapped, though her offer had me thinking a moment before shaking my head. “As much as I would really like to make out with you right now, I might not be able to stop myself once we got started. She’s my sister, I shouldn’t have been turned on by watching that… and she never told me that she was into girls.”

Melody sighed, pulling me toward her to look me in the eyes. “Crystal, you’re a Nymph so seeing anyone going at it hot and heavy is going to push your buttons, we all understand that. As for your sister, as much as you look identical now and are getting into the whole twin thing, you’re not really twins. I can tell that you’re very close but you were her brother and she probably wasn’t ready to share that with you yet, if she even realized it herself. For all we know, she could have been in denial about the whole thing. If that’s the case she’s going to be pretty shaken up and she’ll need you.”

Shit. As far as I knew Jess had never even been kissed before, like me she had zero experience with this kind of stuff. Most of our time growing up had been spent together, we weren’t just siblings but best friends and with the whole Paranormal thing and being homeschooled we never really had anyone else but Dad and one another. Sure, we knew a few other kids around the apartment complex but they were normies and we never got too close so they wouldn’t figure out the family secret.

I hugged the half-Demon, breathing in her scent as I wanted to do so much more than just that. “Thanks, Melody. Can I maybe get a raincheck on that whole making-out thing? Like later tonight, in the privacy of my room?”

“That sounds nice… if you’re… sure.” Her eyes had gone wide and I could swear that she was trying not to grin as she nodded and gave her reply in a husky near-whisper.

I took several deep breaths to try to calm myself down and somewhat cool the damp heat between my legs and then made my way purposefully to where Jess was looking at shoes with Rhissa and Rose while Sandra was off helping another customer. Both Rose and Jess looked pretty awkward now that they had calmed down and were avoiding any talk about anything but footwear. I could taste the sexual tension in the air. “You,” I said pointing to Rose. “The three of us need to talk, is there someplace we can do that privately?”

Reluctantly, Rose led us to the supply room and closed the door behind us. As soon as the door was closed Rose looked at the floor and muttered, “Look, I’m sorry, okay? I don’t know what could have possessed me to kiss her of all people.”

“Well, it’s not like I wanted you checking my dental work, Bitch,” Jessica shot back unconvincingly.

I groaned and rolled my eyes. “Really? You’re both actresses and that’s the best you’ve got? Drop the act, I’m a Nymph and sexual tension is my second language. If you won’t admit it to me, at least admit it to yourselves. I don’t give a shit if you two want to suck face or fuck like bunnies all night long if it makes my sister happy. You are a problem though,” I said, focusing on Rose.

“Wha…” Rose started to ask in confusion.

I cut her off, giving her a very serious look. “Nobody can know that we were from Vancouver. If anyone asks, we’re from Calgary and you met Jess when she flew into Vancouver for a few days to audition for a role. Our lives depend on this, and yours may too if the wrong people find out and connect Jessica to me; these people don’t like loose ends and neither does our aunt. Now, you have two choices. You can play dumb about knowing my sister when we start school and keep looking over your shoulder or we can tell you a story and you swear to take the secret to your grave, hopefully far into the future.”

Rose chose number two, but that didn’t surprise me since she had been curious from the moment I had asked for privacy. Once we had finished our story Rose was actually sympathetic about the loss of our Dad and everything that we had been through since. She also told us a bit about herself, though I thought that might be because she was trying to see if she and Jess could have any common ground besides mutual dislike, jealousy, and attraction for one another.

She hadn’t even wanted to be an actress, animal, or otherwise. Her mother was one of those intense moms who had her in beauty contests and such since she could walk, pressuring her to become a model and actress when she grew up. When puberty hit and she Manifested her normie mother was surprised and her father had to come clean about what he and Rose were. She started pushing Rose into the bunny roles after that, saying that she was going to be an actress one way or another.

Rose resented being forced into her acting career and grew to resent the animals she worked with too, especially Jessica, who had beat her out for the role of Jingles in The Peels. Her mother hadn’t been happy about her losing to a ‘dumb bunny’ at all. Now her parents were in the midst of a messy divorce and Rose’s aunt had offered to take her in so she wouldn’t be caught in the middle and so she could get out from under her mother’s thumb.

I kind of felt for her and even Jessica had to admit that she could understand where Rose was coming from. She had gotten just as pissed about losing the slasher flick to Rose and the only one pressuring her had been herself. In the end, a truce was called, phone numbers were exchanged, and we were able to get back to what was really important, shopping for shoes.

Melody got mostly practical footwear; a pair of boots, sneakers, and a couple of pairs of heels in case she ever decided to wear one of the pair of sexy dresses that Rhissa had convinced her to buy. Jess got a pair of canvas running shoes, some black leather ankle boots that were warm enough for winter, and various types and colors of heels. Since Jess and Rhissa knew more about what looked good than me I let them and Rose pick out stuff for me, I was just too damn tired.

I did get those sneakers that I had been looking at earlier but I was already wearing those nice new boots that went so well with my jacket and my feet wouldn’t get cold so I didn’t really need winter boots, though there was a cute pair of tan ankle boots that I liked. Most of my shoes ended up being near duplicates to Jess’s though, in case we decided to do the whole dressing alike thing. By the time we were out of the crowded mall and back on our way home for dinner, I was exhausted, relieved to be away from all those people, and having trouble keeping my hands off Melody as we shared the back seat.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 11 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 11: Hot and Bothered

Dinner was just starting in the club by the time Melody, Jessica, and I had gotten our shopping bags put away in our rooms and were ready to head downstairs. As Rhissa and Melody headed downstairs to join the others though, I held Jessica back and called out, “You two go on ahead, we’ll be down in a minute.”

“Okay, don’t be long though. It’ll taste better hot,” Rhissa offered with a nod before pulling Melody along with her.

“We won’t take long,” I promised. Then once they were on their way I pulled Jess into my room and sat her down on the end of my bed that wasn’t currently covered with shopping bags. The bed had been made by the housekeepers while we were gone and I had noticed when we returned that all three of our rooms now boasted brass nameplates just like the other permanent residents. I guess that it really was home now.

Jess looked at me uncertainly and asked, “What’s up Crystal? I’m… uhhh… hungry.”

“I didn’t want to bring this up at the mall but that kiss shook you up a bit and you were quiet all the way home. Are you okay, Sis?” I asked, taking her hand in mine and squeezing it.

Her ears twitched as she tried to brush it off and change the subject. “I’m fine, Crystal. What about you? I know how hard it is for you to be around so many people for that long and I could smell the desire on you all the way home.”

I let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m getting used to it, I’ll be fine until I can do something about it later. Jess, this is me. I know that I may look like Crystal now, but part of me is still Seth and I know you better than anyone. I don’t think we have ever kept secrets from each other and I wouldn’t think we’d start now. Please, talk to me. I can’t be there for you if I don’t know what’s going on with you.”

She hesitated a moment and then it all came out at once. “What the hell was up with that?! Rose is fucking here of all places and she’s a Púca too?! She kissed me! I kissed her back! And I liked it! I wanted more, I wanted to…” She cut off however that sentence was going to end, her cheeks bright red.

“Welcome to my world,” I said with a sigh as I put an arm around her and pulled her close. “When I was Seth I was only interested in girls, but now I want to do that with everyone; guys, girls, or otherwise. I want to do it all of the time and being attracted to guys like that still freaks me out a bit in my head. This is me now though and I need to get used to that idea. You may have changed your look and your last name but inside you’re still the same person and this is just a new part of yourself to discover. Don’t be afraid to explore it if it could make you happy. If I can adjust to being a Nymph, I know that you can adjust to this. No matter what, you’ll always be my sister and I will never stop loving you.”

“I…” Jess started to say something but stopped, seemingly uncertain.

“Jess, is liking girls new to you? Do you like guys that way? You’ve never really talked to me about this kind of stuff and I was never very good with the touchy-feely stuff but we’re both girls now, sisters, and I want you to be able to talk to me so I can be there if you need advice, a shoulder to cry on, or just need the ear of your best friend.”

Jessica let out a sigh and said hesitantly, “I don’t know. I think I like girls, it’s not the first time I’ve been attracted to one, but it’s the first time I ever… y’know. Rose is one hot cross bunny, but I’m not really sure if we could ever have anything more than raw attraction. I mean, up until today we hated each other’s guts.”

“I’ll be honest, I feel the same way about Melody. At first, she pissed me off and embarrassed me but I’ve been seeing more and more good qualities in her that I really like as we get to know one another. I’ll admit that you read me like a book, I think I’m really into her so I’m going to see where things go between us. It might be a one-time thing or it could become something amazing. You never know unless you try, Sis,” I pointed out. “And what about guys?”

My sister shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve tried to be attracted to guys but I only seem to be attracted to them at a certain time of the month. Before my birth mother died she started prepping me for when I Manifested. She told me that when we’re fertile we’ll want to make babies and we get really turned on around guys. Until I started thinking of you and Dad as my brother and father I had problems being around you during those times. It wasn’t really a problem after that since you were the only guys I spent a lot of time with. Usually, if I got turned on by seeing a hot guy on TV or while we were out I would just... take care of it on my own. Since we’re both being honest, I think my attraction to girls is more genuine but I was scared of what you might think.”

“Well, I’m hardly going to hate you for that, especially now,” I told her as I wrapped her up in a hug. “Even as Seth it wouldn’t have bothered me, girls liking girls was hardly the weirdest thing we’d ever seen. You’re my sister, I don’t care who you choose to have a relationship with so long as they treat you well and make you happy. If they don’t, we’re gonna have words. I may be your sister rather than your brother now but I’ll always watch out for you.”

Jessica hugged me back, nearly squeezing the air out of my lungs. “Thanks, Sis. Now let’s go down to dinner, I’m starving.”

Dinner was as hectic as breakfast was and there was a lot of talking back and forth since Sunday was the only day of the week that those who lived in Pandora’s Box got to have dinner together. Breakfast was an everyday thing and lunch happened fairly often when the kids weren’t in school but except for Sundays, and the occasional holiday, everyone just got dinner from the kitchen whenever they were hungry and had the time since the club opened at four in the afternoon. Everyone seemed to be close enough to relish these times where they could all be together though and it made me hopeful that Jess and I could maybe fit in and start thinking of this strange place as our home.

The only one conspicuously absent during dinner was Lou, though we were told that was because it was a full moon and he was locked up tight for everyone’s safety since he couldn’t control himself in his wolf forms yet. He would be locked up the next two nights at sunset as well since the moon stays full for three nights, not one as a lot of people seem to believe. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about him saying something stupid, and he probably would have with the direction the conversation turned over dinner.

Everyone tried to get us in on the dinner conversation, in fact, for part of the meal me and Jess were the focus of it. It was our resident Undine, Nixie, who started the conversation. “So, I hear that the two of you will be turning eighteen in a few weeks and graduating this year. Have you given any thoughts to your futures?”

Carmilla had taken a sip of blood from her goblet and gave us a serious look as she put in, “Nixie is right, you’re Fey so it’s something you should be considering. Trust me, when you aren’t mortal and don’t visibly age, it’s best to do something that you either enjoy or that suits your lifestyle, preferably both.”

“I really want to become an actress if I can ever get better control over my human form,” Jessica admitted.

“Concordia University here in Edmonton has a very good Performing Arts program,” Pandora suggested. “You could keep living here, use the money you have saved for school, and make some spending money by working here part-time. If you’re not comfortable with what we do, we could always use another bartender, we’d be willing to pay for the course to certify you when you turn eighteen too. It’s a weekend course and having it as a fallback would make it easier for you to find work elsewhere when you eventually try to make a name for yourself in acting.”

My sister considered it for a moment and nodded, a smile forming on her lips. “That’s not a bad plan, I never considered going to school for it or having a backup plan, but having a Performing Arts degree could help me get my foot in the door and I could learn a lot. And being a bartender might be a good job for people watching or practicing how I interact with people.”

“You should also keep in mind that you’re probably going to only get only twenty years at the most out of an acting career before people start noticing that you’re not aging. You may be able to change things like general body shape and appearance but I’ve never known a Púca that can make themselves look older than their mid-twenties, the youthful appearance is part and parcel of being Fey,” Mom added.

Krysti grinned, her fox ears twitching in amusement as she said, “People never think about the negatives of eternal youth. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of positives. There are so many things, and people, to enjoy if you keep an open mind, and as long as everyone involved is consenting and good with it, the more the merrier and loads of fun. Your problem is that you have basically three choices if you have a career in the public eye; retire and disappear before people start noticing the age thing, try taking on a different look and starting again, or start hawking anti-aging snake oil.” She winked at the Lamia of the group as she said the last.

“Well she’s not getting any from me, it doesn’t work anyway. I have plenty and I age normally,” Nadia shot back. “Seriously though, there are dangers to all the options besides retiring and finding a quiet place to live out the rest of your life among other Paranormals. If you take a new look but don’t have the proper background and documentation, or choose the wrong beauty product to endorse and it doesn’t work, people are going to figure you out or at least get suspicious.”

“Well, if I can manage a twenty-year career in acting I’ll be doing better than most, I guess. That’ll give me plenty of time to decide what I want to do with the rest of my life out of the public eye. I just want to make it big and live the dream for a bit. Dad… he believed in me and I want to prove him right too.” Jessica admitted, her ears twitching as her eyes started to tear up.

I leaned over to put an arm around her and whispered, “You’ll do it, Sis. I believe in you too and Dad would be proud.”

“So, what about you Crystal? What are your plans?” Lou’s mother, Genevieve, asked me.

“I don’t really have a lot of options as a Nymph and I never really had a plan for my future anyway,” I confessed. “Rhissa convinced me to keep an open mind about maybe working here and doing what you and Mom do. I don’t know if I’ll like it, or even be any good, but I guess it won’t hurt to maybe learn to dance and watch a show or two after I’m eighteen to see if it appeals to me.”

“Oooh! We can teach you to dance!” the Dicken sisters all squealed at once before Stella took charge and added, “Anita is the best pole dancer we have, Adora really knows how to work a crowd, and I love working on choreography. You Nymphs are so graceful, agile, and flexible; we could help you develop some awesome routines. We could start this week when the club is closed!”

“I dunno, I… uhh…” I started to reply uncertainly. I still wasn’t sure about it and I had a lot of hang-ups to get over before I felt that I would be ready for that. It was the half-pleading half-excited looks on their faces as the three leaned eagerly toward me that made me sigh and say, “Sure, but not tomorrow. I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow. And we can’t spend all day since Jessica, Melody, and I have to start studying for the school’s entrance exam.”

“Awesome! We’ve got a protégé!” Anita said with a huge grin. She and her sisters were so animated after that as they discussed what they wanted to put me through, routines, and costume possibilities. They acted like it was a given that I’d end up dancing at the club eventually and they were only too happy to help me prepare. I, on the other hand, was quiet for the remainder of dinner as I thought about just what I had gotten myself into.

After dinner, we had split up to do our own things, which left Jessica, Melody, and me putting away all of our new clothes and other stuff in our rooms. Once we were finished with that we hung out with Rhissa, Carmen, and little Sorcha for a while. Melody had some concerns about how she was going to pass the entrance exams for St. Michelle’s since she hadn’t been in school since she was fourteen and was supposed to be a senior like us. Carmen was two grades behind us so she didn’t really know what questions they might ask on our tests but Rhissa had graduated from there last year.

“Don’t worry about it too much Melody,” Carmen suggested. “Really, most of my entrance exam was just proving that I’m a Paranormal so no normies get in. When I took my test before Christmas break started the Headmistress told me it wasn’t a pass or fail kind of test, I think it’s just to get an idea of where you are for school knowledge. What was it like for you Rhiss?”

“They would like to know where you’re at with your education,” the Huldra agreed with a shrug, “but I was out of school for almost two years when I started there. They put me in an accelerated learning program with one of the psychics they have on staff. Basically, I spent one of my elective classes one on one with her and she got in my head to help me learn what I was missing until I caught up.”

Melody was looking at her in both interest and concern as I looked up from where Jess and I were teaching Sorcha to play checkers. “Really, what’s that like? I don’t know if I feel comfortable with someone getting in my head. I got secrets I’d like to stay secret.”

“Mrs. Jenner, the one I worked with, is a projective telepath,” Rhissa clarified for the half-Demon. “She can’t read minds but she’s very good at putting thoughts, knowledge, or even memories into people’s heads. She used to work for the PDA before the school hired her. Even if she could read minds it would be unethical to read a student’s mind without permission. She just kind of pours her own knowledge of the subjects you need help with into your brain at high speed. It’s like speed reading but she made sure that I would retain the information. If you spent the whole semester with her, you could probably be caught up by graduation.”

“Well, as long as my private thoughts can be kept private, I guess I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I kinda feel like a failure sometimes, dropping out like I did. It would be nice to graduate, even if I’m just going to work as a bouncer,” Melody admitted with a sigh.

“It wasn’t your fault that you had to drop out,” I told her sternly, turning my head to look her right in the eyes. “Your life got screwed up when you Manifested, I think any Paranormal can understand that. You were living on the streets and trying to figure out what you were on your own without any help. Survival was more important. You did survive and didn’t turn to the dark side, a failure couldn’t have done that.”

“I… uhh... wow. Thanks, Crystal, I…”

I cut her off as I climbed into her lap, to Rhissa’s and Carmen’s token protests, and kissed her as enthusiastically as I could. When I finally came up for air and she had a dopey grin on her face I said breathily, “I wouldn’t be interested in a failure, Melody. Now about that make-out session that I promised you earlier...”

Melody swallowed the lump in her throat and all but gasped out, “Your room or mine?”

“I like it here, we’re already comfortable and I’ve got you right where I want you, so…” I suggested playfully as I kissed along her jawline up to her ear to tug it with my teeth.

“Not here! Think of the children!” Jessica said, covering Sorcha’s eyes.

“I seem to recall someone shouting something to the effect of, ‘Think of the horny Nymph in the room’ earlier today, when Rose and Jessica were all over one another like a couple of… bunnies. I wonder who that could have been,” Rhissa put in thoughtfully.

I don’t know who blushed worse, me or Jess. The heat in my cheeks almost rivaled that between my legs. Aww, who am I kidding? There was no comparison, the cheeks lost in a landslide. I would only be too happy to leave the room now to get what I was desperately needing and leave my sister to the embarrassment. I stood up and reached out to take Melody’s hand so I could pull her to her feet. I was so damn horny and I wanted her so badly. Okay, I wanted anyone badly, but she was an acceptable target for who I was starting to have feelings for, so I wanted it to be her. “Come on, let’s go… my room… it’s closer.”

Melody was grinning like she had just won the lottery but she was quick to take my hand and stand up. “Well, I guess I’ll see you all later then, hopefully at breakfast. I really hope…”

Whatever Melody was about to say was cut off as Carmen nearly jumped out of her seat on the couch with a surprised, “Eep!”

“What’s wrong Carmen?” Rhissa asked. “You’d think something pulled your tail.”

“You’re the one with the tail, goofball,” Carmen replied as she took the little black bag out from inside her shirt. “I dunno, I just felt something really weird, like my egg pouch jumped or something. It surprised me. Whoa!” The last was said as the black pouch seemed to jump in her hand of its own volition.

Sorcha suddenly let out her own squeal of surprise, nearly knocking the checkerboard over. “Mine jumpded too!”

I looked from one to the other in confusion as they stared at their bags until I felt a noticeable movement in my cleavage, which unfortunately for me was stimulating with how turned on I was right then. “Wow, that felt weird. What was that?” I wondered as I removed my own little black velvet bag to stare at it.

“Krysti said that the pouches would let us know if the eggs were moving inside so we could be ready when they hatch, maybe this is what she meant,” Carmen said thoughtfully.

Sorcha only needed to hear one word in that sentence as she squealed in glee. “Dey gonna hatch! Da eggses is gonna hatch!”

“Food! We need food for them!” Carmen said in a breathless rush. I was still staring at my bag trying to process what was happening when Carmen grabbed me by the wrist. “C’mon Crystal! They’re hatching! We need to get down to the kitchen and get some food ready for them! Grundle said they’re gonna be hungry! Oh crap! Grundle! He said we needed to call him when they were ready to hatch! He said there’s stuff we need to know!”

I was only just beginning to concentrate on what was happening through the fog of desire as Carmen half dragged me away from Melody and toward the elevator with Sorcha running ahead of us squealing and giggling in delight. I glared down at the little bag in my hand. “Oh come on! Now?! Really?! I was just about to get…” Carmen’s elbow nudge and pointed look toward the four-year-old ahead of us holding the elevator door gave me the presence of mind to shut my mouth.

Behind me I heard Melody let out a dramatic sigh and say, “Well, maybe we can get to it afterward. So, Jess? Rhissa? Are we going to watch? I mean even among Paranormals, who on the Material Plane can say that they’ve seen the birth of a clutch of Salamanders?” Jess and Rhissa didn’t say a word as the three jumped over the couch to join us in the elevator before the doors shut completely.

Rhissa took out her cell phone and called Grundle on the ride down to let him know what was happening and that we were on our way to the kitchen. I don’t know about the others but my pouch jumped again on the ride down. We made our way quickly through the club and toward the kitchen where Brock and Cindy were finishing cleaning up the dinner dishes and packing away leftovers. Sorcha nearly bowled Cindy over in her excitement. “Dey hatching, Cindy! We need da food!”

The Mermaid looked at the little redheaded bundle of energy and smiled as her mind voice slipped into our thoughts. ~Okay, girls, you should probably take the eggs out of the bags and put them under the heat lamps to keep them warm. Keep them close and don’t let them roll. I have some ground beef in the fridge that should work fine for them once I break it up into more manageable mouthfuls for them.~

After I made a quick detour to the sink to splash my face with some water to try to get control of my raging hormones, we quickly did as Cindy had instructed while Brock turned on the heat lamps for us. As that was being done, Cindy removed the promised ground beef from the fridge and broke it up into pieces as small as she could manage. Then as we each watched our eggs shiver and shake on the countertop Rhissa, Melody, Jess, and the pair of Merfolk watched from across the counter while trying to give us space. I just watched my egg, torn between horniness, frustration, excitement, confusion, and panic.

I wasn’t sure that I wanted this responsibility, honor, or whatever it was that Ashe had thought she was giving me when she insisted I take the egg. I wondered if Ashe would take them back after they hatched, or if we were supposed to raise them too? I had absolutely no clue what to do when it hatched, let alone how to care for a baby Salamander long-term. I could barely take care of myself and I had no idea how to care for a baby anything.

I almost jumped out of my shoes, and I did let out a girly squeal of surprise when Grundle walked out from the wall behind me and asked gruffly, with no warning whatsoever, “Did they hatch yet?”

I was busy trying to find my heart and put it back in my chest as Rhissa answered, “No. They’re really shaking, but nothing else yet.”

“Good, that means I can tell you what little I know. Everyone but those of you chosen needs to stay back. You girls let them eat their fill. In the wild, their mother feeds them and then carries them off one at a time to bite the first living creature they come across but in this case, you three are going to let them bite you,” the Gnome told us without the hint of a smile.

Sorcha’s eyes went wide as I sputtered, “You want us to let them bite us?!”

Grundle nodded and from the expression on his face, he was fully serious. “That’s how the bond is made, when they taste your blood and leave their hatching tooth in the wound. Salamanders are symbiotic creatures, they’re mostly energy and can’t hold a physical form for long in the first few months of their lives, so they’ll bond with you and give you their marks. That’s all that I know for certain except that their hosts seem to be impervious to fire and heat. You could hug Ashe when she’s white-hot and the only thing to get burned would be your clothes.”

“Well, I guess that’s one less thing for Sorcha’s mom to worry about,” Carmen muttered beside me. “I thought you’d know more Grundle, you brought us Ashe after all, and you said you’ve seen these bonds made before. Couldn’t you have talked to one of them?”

“Lass, Salamanders are native to the Fire plane, and the creatures there aren’t exactly stunning conversationalists. There aren’t any sentient creatures there that I know of, so to my knowledge, a Salamander has never bonded with a sentient creature before that I could talk to,” the Gnome replied. “You three would be the first.”

“So, you can’t even be sure if this is safe,” Jessica said with a frown.

“Ashe is pretty clever from what I’ve seen and she seems to have taken to these three girls. I don’t think she would do anything to hurt them, especially since she is placing her children in…” Whatever the Gnome was about to say was cut off as the egg in front of Carmen burst open, revealing a bright orange and black Salamander a little smaller than my pinky finger.

“See that orange color, that one’s a male, the females are all red and black like Ashe,” Grundle said before motioning to Carmen. “Go on, lass. Put some of that meat in front of it.”

Carmen dubiously obeyed and before the little guy was finished wolfing down his first meal the other two eggs hatched as well, revealing a pair of females. I really wasn’t sure that this was a good idea as I pushed a bit of the raw ground beef within reach of the tiny Salamander in front of me. Sorcha on the other hand couldn’t have been more eager. Kids.

Several minutes later, all three hatchlings seemed to have eaten their fill and began looking around, probably for their mother. “I dunno about this,” I said as I looked down at the little one in front of me. Okay, it was freaking adorable and I kind of wanted to hold it, but we were talking about it biting me, and apparently leaving its tooth in the bloody wound. I knew very little about these creatures or what this symbiotic relationship would entail and that made me nervous.

Sorcha was ready to just stick her finger right in there but Carmen held her back a moment and looked toward me. She was nervous too, I could see it, but she tried smiling at me. “C’mon, Crystal. We’ll all do it together, on the count of three. One… two… three!”

Against my better judgment, I pushed my pinkie finger toward the cute little beastie as Carmen and little Sorcha did the same. Don’t you just hate peer pressure? The little bugger wasted no time in chomping down on my fingertip, drawing blood and sending a burning pain through my finger and then onward through my whole body. For a moment it felt like I was on fire and I wasn’t sure if it was me, Carmen, or Sorcha that was screaming. And that was about when I fainted.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 12 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 12: Fevered

Familiar voices teased the edges of my awareness but I was so tired that I couldn’t seem to fight my way to complete consciousness. “Crystal! C’mon, wake up, Sis,” Jessica’s voice pleaded frantically. “What’s wrong with her?! She’s burning up! Mel, try to get the tooth out of the wound!”

“I’ve been trying!” Melody snapped. “I can’t find it, it’s like it dissolved!”

“They’ll be fine. Given the nature of the creatures that they’re merging with, a bit of a fever is to be expected while their bodies adapt,” Grundle tried to reassure them, but he didn’t sound very certain.

“Carmen and Sorcha are running a fever too,” Rhissa’s voice grimly contributed before adding in a panic, “What the hell?! Brock! Call the others and tell Dr. Diaz and Aislinn that we need them down here, fast! I think the stress is causing Sorcha to Manifest but that is not a normal color for a Selkie in their seal form!”

Time passed with only the panicked movements and frantic breathing of the others in the kitchen. It could have been a few minutes or even a decade later that Carmilla’s voice rang out. “Rhissa, take the little one. Melody, take Crystal. I’ll get Carmen, we’re taking them up to Carmen’s room, it’s the closest to the clinic and they can all lay comfortably in her bed while Isabella examines them. It’ll be easier for her to monitor them if they’re all in the same place.”

“What can I do to help?” Grundle asked as I vaguely felt myself being swept up in Melody’s arms.

“You’ve helped enough, little man!” Carmilla snapped. “What in the name of the Night Queen were you thinking, Grundle?! Telling them to let some symbiotic creatures from the Fire Plane, that we know little or nothing about, bite them! They’re all kids for fuck sake, and Crystal is a Snow Nymph! Fire and Ice are opposites; a Fire elemental could have killed her! Did you even stop to think about how this would affect them?!”

“Ashe adores those children, she would never…”

“You can’t know that,” Carmilla’s voice all but growled. “She’s not from our plane, we know nothing about her kind and how they think, much less what’s happening to these children right now. If any of them die or are harmed by this, then you had best find a good place to hide on a plane far from here because there is nowhere on the Material Plane where you will be safe from my wrath!”

There was a long silence then and I was distantly aware of the occasional jostling. Had I been properly conscious I probably would have kept my mouth shut too. The Vampire had been kind to me in our few interactions so far and I got the feeling that she saw Sorcha and all of the kids who lived above the club as the children she could never have herself, and that included us new arrivals as well. She was often brooding and distant, but when speaking with or about one of us ‘kids’ she was almost maternal, fiercely protective, and the very last person on this plane of existence who I would have wanted pissed off at me.

I was scared. Not of Carmilla, but of what was happening as everything seemed to become more distant and hazy. All I could focus on was the fear and uncertainty, both my own and something that seemed to tease the back of my mind. Was the fever making me delirious? What would happen if I let myself fall completely into the embrace of slumber that tugged insistently at my mind? I would soon find out, as I could fight it no longer.

I sat in a forest of ice and snow, with a bright full moon, a myriad of stars, and an aurora borealis lighting the sky above as I held a white-hot flame in my cupped hands and fire surged through my veins. To my surprise, neither seemed to hurt me nor even melt the ice and snow around me. Though I did find myself wondering, “Am I dead?”

“No, child, you still live,” a soothing and feminine voice gently told me. “You are merely resting as your body adjusts to the Fire than now slumbers within you and the joining completes.”

While it did come as a relief that I wasn’t dead, I did have to wonder, “Where am I?”

“You are inside your mind, young Nymph. Your sense of self is strong, not even the fire which now grows within you can damage the cool serenity of your inner mind. I find it a bit cold for my liking though. Follow the sound of my voice, the others await,” the voice gently urged.

I followed and soon found myself in a place where the very sky burned, walking along a surface of smooth black stone until I stood before a lake of boiling lava. Despite the heat and the acrid air, I didn’t find myself uncomfortable as the voice said, “You are a most interesting creature, as close to the Divine as you are to Ice. It is the Divine that protects you from being consumed by the Fire and allows you to accept the joining, for Fire is as much a part of the Divine as Ice. That Divinity, that shining Light within you, is what drew me to each of you. It is why I chose you. Welcome to my mind, children of the Light.”

I turned my head to see Carmen and Sorcha standing to either side of me and it was Carmen who asked, “Who are you? What do you mean? I’m a Healer so yeah, I’m aligned to the Divine, but Crystal is a Snow Nymph and Sorcha is a Selkie who hasn’t even Manifested yet.”

“I am the one that you call Ashe,” the voice admitted. “Appearances can be deceiving, Carmen. Crystal is more than a mere Nymph and aligned to both Ice and the Divine. As for the little one, do not be so certain. Like Crystal, young Sorcha is more than she seems. She is aligned to Water and the Divine and her power awakens even now, drawn forth by the joining. The White Selkie can cleanse water even as you do with living things.”

“I gots power?” Sorcha asked in wonder.

“Yes, young one, you have a great power,” Ashe’s voice told the four-year-old tenderly. “You must learn from your mother and Carmen and work hard to control it, but tell no one outside your family what you can do. Also, tell no one outside your family that you are bonded to one of my kind. I chose to bond my children to the three of you, not only because the Divine would protect you during the joining, but also because my children can protect you when they are grown. You each have gifts that others would abuse if they knew of your natures.”

“How are you even talking to us?” I wondered, even as I realized that Grundle was wrong about there being no sentient creatures on the Fire Plane. Either he was overlooking the obvious, or he had suspected more than he admitted. I was pretty sure that it was the latter.

“It is one of the gifts of the joining,” the Salamander explained. “You can now speak with one another, or others of my kind when within the range of our minds. You are also protected from fire and heat, can travel to and from the Fire Plane just as I can, will benefit from improved health, and will be able to call upon your bonded’s physical form when you have need. They will not be able to manifest those forms for long until they are fully mature though. That will take six months as you measure time, and it will be a month before they can stoke a proper flame.”

“Okay, so that’s what we get out of this joining. What does your kind get? Symbiosis is usually mutually beneficial,” Carmen pointed out.

“Our kind requires hosts if we are to live until maturity,” Ashe confirmed. “The energy of my children will slumber within your bodies as they grow, and continue to do so as long as you live, except when in their corporeal forms. They will learn from you, share your experiences, and gain energy and strength from the food you eat. You will have an increased appetite since you are eating for two and when in their physical forms for extended periods, your bonded will need to eat meat once a day, just as I do.”

“Carmen told me that you were injured when Grundle found you on the Fire Plane, what happened to your… umm… host?” I asked uncertainly.

A sense of sadness and longing pervaded the Salamander’s mindscape as she responded. “My host was a noble and clever creature but rather low on the food chain, I’m afraid. I kept her safe for far longer than others of her kind usually live but eventually, nature ran its course and we were caught by a creature that was larger, faster, and hungrier. I attempted to protect her in my physical form and killed the creature, but I was injured in the process and my host succumbed to her wounds. My kind can only bond with one host, once it dies we are on our own.”

“You’re obviously sentient creatures, so why haven’t you tried taking sentient hosts before?” I wondered aloud.

“We have, child,” the Salamander admitted. “My kind often visits the Material Plane and the people who live here are extremely interesting to us. Some have tried to bond their children with human hosts but neither the children nor what was left of their intended hosts survived the joining process. Humans are only rarely aligned to one of the ten elements and our kind bond best to creatures aligned to the Fire element, like those found on our plane. During my mating cycle, I discovered that one of my kind had managed to successfully bond one of her children with a unicorn, with no ill effects after the initial joining. So it seems that those aligned to the Divine, and possibly Death, make suitable hosts as well.”

“Well, I guess that explains spontaneous human combustion,” I muttered, feeling both queasy at the thought and extremely grateful that I was merely fevered. “You were taking a pretty big chance on word of mouth alone.”

“I took no chances,” Ashe said sternly. “Had I been uncertain about you I would have offered your egg to the half-Demon, she is aligned to Fire and Death both and would have been a fine candidate. The first time that I allowed each of the three of you to touch me, I was testing you. Even in our physical forms when not generating a flame, our bodies would burn most people. It would not be enough to cause any lasting harm but your connections to the Divine are strong and the power within you reacted to keep you safe. When you were able to safely touch me I knew that your power would allow you to survive the joining.”

“Mom did have to treat Grundle for burns when he first brought Ashe to us. We all thought that he had spooked her or something while bringing her here,” Carmen admitted thoughtfully.

“I don’t mean to be ungrateful, I do appreciate you offering us your children,” I offered contritely, “this has just been a lot to take in. I only Manifested less than a week ago and since then everything has been crazy. What would you have done if Melody, Jess, and I hadn’t shown up before the eggs started to hatch? I mean, you only met us this morning and the eggs were practically ready to pop.”

“I would have left my enclosure and gone to test the other Muse. I assume she’s your mother, Crystal? Had she not worked out I would have tested Carmen’s mother and the Vampire. Had none of them been suitable candidates, I would have merely found a creature on the Fire Plane to bond her with when she hatched,” the Salamander’s voice assured me. “I will have to test the three of them and the half-Demon before my next mating cycle. Do you have any other questions about your bonded, or the process, children?”

“What’s its name?!” Sorcha asked eagerly as Carmen stared at me in wonder after Ashe’s casual revelation about me and my mother.

Sorcha’s inquiry seemed to change the mood of the mindscape once again as Ashe’s laughter reverberated around us. “Your human tongues could not pronounce the names that we give our kind. You may continue to call me Ashe and name your bonded whatever you wish. They are joined with you and it is you who shall have to interact with them the most.”

“We should… umm… keep their names short and easy to remember,” Carmen advised the little Selkie once she had managed to stop staring at me. “I’m thinking of naming mine Blaze.”

“I gots da bestest name ever,” Sorcha proclaimed proudly, “Mister Squiggles.”

“Ummm… Sorcha… Sweetie, maybe you should just go with Squiggles. Yours is a girl Salamander after all, and when she grows up the Mister might confuse her,” I suggested gently. I could totally get gender confusion after the week I’d had.

The little Selkie thought about it a moment and then nodded. “Okay, Crystal. I name her Squiggles. Whatchoo gonna name yours?”

I sighed as I considered it. I had never thought that I would have to come up with a name for a Fire elemental who would be sharing my body for the rest of my very long life, after all. I’d never even had a dog or a goldfish, the closest thing I had was a rabbit, and she was my sister. So, what does one name a sentient fire-lizard? “Well, I don’t know if I can top Squiggles,” I said thoughtfully, causing Sorcha to beam happily. “She’s a girl so I should make it feminine sounding, I guess. Maybe Cinder?”

Sorcha’s eyes went wide and she nodded her head eagerly. “I like dat. It’s pretty, an’ Cinderelly is one of my favoritest Disney princesses.”

Since it had already gotten the four-year-old seal of approval, I was pretty happy when Carmen voiced her agreement. “That’s a good one, Crystal. So… uhh… what do we do now?”

Both Carmen and Sorcha looked at me, probably because I was the oldest of us, but I really had no more idea than they did. “I guess we’re all sleeping off this joining thing right now? What should we do, Ashe?”

“You must let your minds rest as your bodies do the same, children,” Ashe suggested in a maternal tone. “I called your minds to me because you were uncertain and afraid and I wished to ease your hearts and minds. Be not afraid, rejoice in the joining, it is a great gift for you and the children that you carry. Embrace the Fire within you, nurture it, and you will feel refreshed when you awaken. Sleep, children.” Her voice was soothing and caring and it carried me into a deeper slumber.

In my slumber, I sensed a warmth in my mind. It was tiny and delicate, and for some reason, the warm presence both comforted and scared me. Within that warmth, there was a small spark of awareness, a bundle of emotions dominated by need, love, and just a little fear. Did it fear me? Or did it feel my rejection? I felt those same emotions rush through me and, tentatively, I reached out and pulled the warmth into my mental embrace, cooing my love and acceptance as I held it close and assured it that I was there and that we would be together, always.

Love, peace, affection, and a torrent of other emotions danced through the awareness that I held close. As I held her, she too held me. I knew then that we belonged together, our embrace could last a lifetime or longer and we would both still take comfort in it, still bask in that sense of completeness. We were two but we were also one, together through whatever would come our way. She needed me as much as I needed her and we vowed to fill whatever role the other needed when it was needed, whether that be mother, protector, friend, partner, or anything else.

“Her heartbeat just sped up, Cindy, I think she’s coming around,” a familiar voice said as I laid back with my eyes closed, trying to figure out where I was. “It’s about time, the others woke an hour and a half ago. I was starting to worry.”

A second musical voice, like a soprano accompanied by the languid strains of a violin, agreed. ~Yes, I can feel her mind beginning to stir. Please, Milly, you haven’t stopped worrying since they all passed out in the first place. I thought that you were going to tear Grundle’s arms off and feed them to him. You heard Isabella as well as the rest of us did, Crystal’s fever was worse than the others and her body was having a harder time acclimating due to the conflicting elements. Crystal, how are you feeling, Honey?~

Everything seemed to come together in my mind as I remembered where I was, those familiar voices, and what had happened to cause me to pass out in the first place. That brought back memories of the talk with Ashe, my fevered dreams, and the sense of the new warm presence in the back of my mind. I could feel our bond just as I could feel that tiny spark of awareness beginning to stir as well. ~Good morning, Cinder,~ I thought to the infant Salamander as I tried to mentally embrace her presence with feelings of warmth, comfort, love, and affection.

I was well aware that I was mothering her, but she was an infant and that was what she needed right now. As strange as that role might be to me I needed to do it for her sake and my own. If we were to be joined and sharing my body and mind, then I wanted to make that experience a positive one. I wanted, and needed, for us to become as close as possible if I was going to stay sane. It was the healthiest and most logical course for both of us. And I guess that, if I was being honest about it, I did actually care about her and feel sort of motherly toward her at the moment.

Cinder instinctively returned that embrace and I felt similar feelings flooding my mind and, for a moment, we just lingered in that mental embrace. It was almost enough to overwhelm the smoldering desire that had become my constant companion since Manifesting and the gnawing hunger that caused my stomach to growl. I could feel my cheeks flush as I opened my eyes to see Carmilla and Cindy hovering over me in an unfamiliar room. “I guess I’m hungry,” I admitted self-consciously.

~Well, I guess that’s my cue to go start helping Brock to get breakfast ready,~ the Mermaid said, smiling down at me. ~Sorcha and Carmen were both hungry too when they woke up. We let them have something from the fridge to tide them over until breakfast. They’re both getting cleaned up now.~

“When you all passed out we brought you all here to Carmen’s room so it would be easier to keep an eye on all of you at once. You had quite the fever there, the others were out just over eight hours but you held out for nearly ten,” the Vampire explained. “Everyone was worried about the three of you, especially your mothers, Jessica, and Melody. Since there wasn’t much that anyone could do but wait for your fevers to break and for you to wake up we sent everyone to go get some sleep around midnight while Cindy and I took turns watching over the three of you. Our kinds don’t need as much sleep as the rest of you and everyone else was worrying themselves sick.”

~Don’t let the old bloodsucker fool you, she’s a softie,~ Cindy teased as she headed toward the door. ~She was just as worried as the rest of us. I got my rest but she spent the whole night here with the three of you, claiming that she could get what little rest that she needs during daylight hours.~

“Hmmph. It made sense since you have to work the kitchens today and I usually sleep during the day anyway,” Carmilla countered as she scowled at the fleeing Mermaid. Once Cindy was out the door she turned back to me. “It’s almost six-thirty, so breakfast should be ready in a little over an hour. Do you need something to tide you over until then? Do you feel strong enough to get up? I can bring you something if you’re not sure.”

“Umm… except for the usual rampant horniness, getting used to having an infant Salamander sharing my body and mind, and feeling like I could eat an entire herd of cows, I feel really good actually,” I replied. This was partly because it was true and partly because I was afraid that she was going to carry me or feed me herself if I couldn’t convincingly assure her that I was fine. A maternal Vampire is almost as scary as the rabid bloodthirsty savage that I had envisioned before meeting Carmilla for the first time. If I were Grundle, I’d stay a safe distance away from her for a while, a mama bear has nothing on her.

The Vampire nodded but watched me as I got myself out of the bed, probably looking for any signs of possible weakness. She seemed satisfied though when I managed to stand on my own, nodding as she offered, “Let’s go see what we can find for you in the fridge.”

What we found to tide me over was a half quart of mint chocolate chunk ice cream. I think I found my new favorite food. It was so cold, sweet, delicious, and wonderfully frozen. It was almost as good as playing in the snow and it not only put a small dent in my appetite but satisfied my desire to be around my primary element too. I wondered briefly if having it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late-night snack every day would be going too far. Maybe if I mixed it up with different flavors…

After my swift and inevitable victory over the half-carton of ice cream, I managed to convince Carmilla that I was fine and excused myself to take a quick shower before breakfast. Thanks to my collapse and the fever that had followed I had been sleeping, and sweating, in my clothes all night and I felt both uncomfortable and gross as a result. Checking on Melody and Jessica by opening their doors a crack showed that neither were in their beds and, since I could hear their showers running, it didn’t take a genius to figure out where they were.

I was mildly disappointed as I made my way into my room to take a shower of my own that I hadn’t been able to give Melody a very memorable wake-up call. I had been tempted to go take my shower with her but I really did feel gross and, if I did that, there probably wouldn’t have been much cleaning going on. Besides, I was hungry enough already, despite the best pre-breakfast ever, and I didn’t have much time before I would be able to sate that appetite completely. As horny as I was, food was more important to my survival, and Cinder’s, than sex.

It was as I undressed for my shower that I discovered that I not only had a Salamander sharing my body but I had a matching tattoo as well. At least, it looked like a tattoo. It was a black and red image of a Salamander, though with the wings most people might mistake it for a dragon, and it covered most of my outer upper right arm with the wings wrapped around the circumference and the tips of them nearly touching one another. That must be the mark that Grundle had mentioned.

I tried to make my shower quick, using the new shampoo, conditioner, and body wash that we had bought the day before. It wasn’t as quick as I intended though for two reasons. First, my hair was still really long and thus took time to properly care for. The second reason was an accidental discovery, namely that handheld showerheads are the very best invention created by man. Oh sure, the wheel was pretty cool for its time and enabled a lot of progress but my new perspective as a Nymph put that somewhat further down the list; somewhere behind those showerheads and, though I had yet to have any experience with them personally, probably vibrators as well.

This also heralded the discovery that one of the new abilities granted by our symbiotic Salamanders needed to come with some boundaries. At the time I was really enjoying the impromptu invigorating lesson on the joys of my new handheld friend, and the pleasure that it was building up inside me. Things were finally about to come to a head (see what I did there) when Carmen’s voice slipped into my mind, permeated with a feeling of concern but also curiosity and wonder. ~Hey, Crystal. I assume you’re up and about since you’re no longer sleeping in my…~

I could only assume that the empathic portion of the communication also went both ways because that was when Carmen’s mind became tinged with embarrassment and a mixed bag of other emotions that neither of us would likely feel comfortable discussing in depth any time soon. ~Oh my God! Were you just… I’m so sorry!~

Is there a female equivalent of blue balls? Because that’s where I was at, again. Honestly, what does it take for a Nymph to get some relief around here? Pandora’s Box is supposedly a house of pleasure! The one time that I’d managed it so far I wasn’t even conscious for the majority of it. ~Knock, Carmen! Knock on my brain before entering! I was showering, it’s just… I…~ I mentally sputtered. My face was an invigorating shade of Crystal Red TM, not from the heat of the water I assure you, and I was mentally blubbering in humiliation and frustration before I managed to gather my wits and mentally speak somewhat coherently. ~I assume that you had a reason for contacting me this way, Carmen.~

~I just wanted to… I didn’t mean to interrupt while you were...~

~I. Was. Showering,~ I insisted, though my current emotional state probably didn’t sell that that was all that I had been doing. ~Even if I were doing anything else, I’m certainly not doing it now. Now, all that I’m doing is rinsing off so I can dry off, get dressed, and grab some damn breakfast.~

~So… showerhead, huh?~ Carmen asked in awkward embarrassment. ~It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, I’m sure that we all do it, the pulse setting feels really good.~

~I wouldn’t know,~ I replied pointedly, trying to cover my frustration at being denied yet again as I finished rinsing off and made a silent mental note to try that pulse setting at the next available opportunity. I stepped out of the shower to start drying off so I could get down to breakfast on time and asked, ~What did you want to know, Carmen? There was a reason you used this method to talk to me right? Because you want to ask me something private, right?~

I could sense her curiosity and her uncertainty about asking even as she confirmed my thoughts and suspicions. ~Is what Ashe said true? Are you and Tiffani really Muses?~

I let slip a physical sigh before replying. I was afraid that she had caught that, and that she would want to know more. ~Carmen, you can’t tell anyone about this. If people knew then me, Mom, and anyone who we’re close to could be in danger.~

There was a moment of both awe and confusion in her mind as I sort of confirmed but didn’t, but there was also determination and a sense of belonging there too. ~I know about keeping secrets for everyone’s safety, Crystal. Only the people here in the club know about me and Mom. Healers are really rare too and like Ashe said, people would want to use us if they discovered what we are. We’d be property or something valuable to them instead of people. I had to register with the PDA and St. Michelle’s as a Divine Mage, like Mom. I have no idea what I’m going to tell them at school if they try to teach me to use something other than healing or purification magic.~

She really did get it, I could feel it in her mind, and it made me feel a little less alone with the whole Muse thing. And I could tell that she felt the same way. I knew that I could trust her, and probably everyone in the club if I had to. For now, I was glad of the privacy of our minds because what I had to tell her would be too difficult to share with anyone who wasn’t already in the know. I had had a hard enough time letting Rose in on the secret and we hadn’t even let her in on the Muse portion.

I took a deep breath, mostly to prepare myself and push down my rampaging hormones yet again, and then I mentally said, ~Okay, Carmen, let me tell you a story while I get ready for breakfast. It all started just over eighteen years ago when my mother gave birth to a son named Seth. Someone, who I later found out had been my father’s best friend, discovered Mom’s secret and she had to flee their home in Toronto and send away her husband and infant son to keep them safe…~

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 13 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 13: Much Ado

Once I was fully dressed and looking the best I could, without my sister’s promised lessons to come with all of the self-care stuff and makeup that we had bought for me yesterday, I left my room and was immediately swarmed. Mom, Aunt Merry, Melody, Jessica, and Rhissa were waiting outside my door and practically smothered me in hugs. When they had finally let me come up for air they all looked tired, like they hadn’t slept well at all and I suddenly felt really bad for worrying all of them.

This left me conflicted because I also really wanted to drag Melody into my room to finish what I hadn’t been able to finish in the shower earlier. My growling stomach managed to talk some sense into me though and attempted to get my mind off sex for the moment. I didn’t think that Melody was ready to give me some sugar anyway since she didn’t look too happy at the moment. None of them did. “Mmmm, sugar. Something sweet would be nice, like real maple syrup on pancakes.”

They all looked worried, but whereas Rhissa, Melody, and Jessica looked like they might be feeling guilty as well, Mom and Aunt Merry obviously weren’t too happy with my decision-making abilities. I hadn’t seen Mom’s stern ‘you done goofed’ look yet, well up until now anyway. It’s a good one, I give it a ten out of ten. That extra element of ‘I was so worried about you’ really brought it to life for me. I felt as small as a grain of rice. “Wow, rice would be really good right now, maybe fried rice with sweet and sour chicken balls. Dammit, stomach, stop distracting me!”

Where was I? Oh yeah, I was feeling really low, like underground levels of low, like maybe the business end of a growing carrot or potato. “Mmmm potatoes. I could really go for some hash browns right now. Arrrgh, why do all my idioms suddenly involve food?! I’m hungry enough as it is. Well, at least I wasn’t thinking about sex… dammit. Wow, I’m glad that I used a panty liner, I’m dripping like a faucet right now and I’ve never noticed just how perky Melody’s breasts are before, is she even wearing a bra? Maybe I should check to be certain.”

I winced as I looked up from the half-Demon’s bust line, caught a look at the bevy of tired and still worried faces, and decided that I really should apologize for worrying them like I did. “You got this, Crystal. You’re a Snow Nymph so you just need to be cool. Cool as ice, that’s you. You’re like a whole bucket of ice cream… that ice cream was really good, I wonder if we have any more… Stop that dammit!”

Right, I was about to apologize. “This is hard; the words just won’t come. I know how they feel. Noo! Bad brain! No sex thoughts, just apologize, dammit!” Finally, I managed to mumble, “I’m… uhhh… sorry for worrying everyone.”

There, I did it! I felt so accomplished, I totally deserved a reward for my efforts. Maybe Melody would help me out with that? My mother snatched that brief hope away when she said, “We’ll talk with all of you about it at breakfast. Isabella said that you need to eat, Crystal.” She was still wearing that frankly epic stern/worried look and since she’s usually so bubbly I wasn’t looking forward to whatever that talk was going to involve. On the other hand, “Yay, food!” I practically ran to the elevator.

I packed away twice as much as I usually do during breakfast; a glass of milk, pancakes with maple syrup, eggs, hash browns, a banana, and I even managed an entire sausage before my stomach decided to protest red meat. It was a really satisfying meal overall. The sausage wasn’t one of those little breakfast sausages either but one of those big thick German ones; juicy, a bit salty, and so satisfying as it slides down your throat. The hash browns and pancakes really hit that craving I was having on the head and, while I couldn’t have ice cream, the banana I had finished my meal with was really good and filling.

I was just eating that banana when Jessica forced a smile and teased, “Well, I see that you’re feeling better this morning, Sis. Maybe now that the three of you are fed you’ll be able to focus on something besides food. If you can manage to pull your mind away from the other thing that seems to be on your mind, well until you and Mel can get some alone time anyway.” She was trying but I could still see her bunny ears twitching in worry.

“Hmmph?” I asked, my mouth full of that wonderful banana. I wasn’t quite sure what she was getting at and, if one could discount the fact that I’d been a guy just under a week ago and now had an infant symbiotic Fire elemental contentedly snuggling in my body and mind, I was feeling pleasantly normal. Well, my new normal anyway.

Still, Jessica’s comment had prompted a few smiles, and even giggles, on otherwise dour faces. I could feel yet another presence in my mind as Carmen tentatively said, ~Knock, knock… Crystal, you need to take smaller bites, especially when eating something like that.~

~Why? I’m a big girl, I won’t choke or anything,~ I protested.

Carmen rolled her eyes at me from across the table. ~Geeze, Crystal. Don’t be so thick. Everyone understands that you were hungry, I ate like that too, but girls generally take smaller bites and take more time chewing so you’ll need to work on that to fit in at school. What your sister was talking about though was that you had half a banana in your mouth and you just held it there for a moment before eating.~

~I was savoring the taste! Now that I’m almost full I don’t want to rush, and you just said that I have to eat slower, so what’s the problem?~ I sent back to her in agitated confusion.

~Well, you ‘savoring the taste’ looked an awful lot like you were doing something else, and keep in mind how half the people in this room make their living. Do you remember that skill that Sukoha is always teasing Lou about testing?~ the younger girl prodded.

I nearly choked on the last of my banana as I made the connection and my face turned that lovely shade of red that I call my own. I may be a Nymph with sex on the brain now, but I didn’t think I was ready for something like that yet. If that was the case though, why did the thought of it turn me on even more than I already was?

It was as I was carefully considering that coital conundrum that shit got real. As in, Tiffani, Dr. Diaz, and Aislinn raking their respective daughters over the coals for acting without considering the consequences as everyone else watched. Dr. Diaz’s usually calm demeanor was gone as she started in on us. “Everyone was worried sick about the three of you! What were you girls thinking?! I would expect this kind of thing from Sorcha, she’s only four, but the two of you should have known better!”

If Carmen had slouched any further into her chair, she’d have been under the table, though I wasn’t exactly doing too well in that regard myself. It was Carmen who answered though. “Crystal didn’t want to do it and I wasn’t too sure either but I pushed her into doing it. They were babies and they needed to bond with someone soon or they’d die. I thought, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ Grundle said it was a symbiotic relationship so I figured it would be something like those birds that ride on a rhino’s back, and they were so small and vulnerable, they needed us.”

“You both felt apprehension and yet you did it anyway and allowed Sorcha to do the same?” my Mom put in, making me feel like I was going to melt under her glare. Well, when she put it like that it did sound pretty bad.

I didn’t have much time to react or reply though as that was when Aislinn practically roared, “What’s the worst that could happen?! You could have died from the fever! You could have exploded! You could have been cooked alive from the inside out! You could have burst into flames and burned down the whole building!” Wow, she had really thought about it. To be fair though, we hadn’t known about the possibility of spontaneous human combustion until after we were unconscious. Not that I was going to bring that up and give them more ammunition. I figured that it was best to just keep my big mouth shut.

“Grundle didn’t think anything bad would happen and Ashe wouldn’t do anything to hurt us. She was sure that we would survive and she was entrusting us with her children and trying to make sure that both they and we are safe,” Carmen pointed out.

Like me, Sorcha seemed to figure that it was best not to bring any more attention to herself than necessary. She can be a smart little girl. Not that it helped either of us as Dr. Diaz gave us both barrels worth of glare to let us know that we weren’t succeeding as she snapped, “If he is smart, Grundle is on another plane very far away and contemplating what he can do to make up for what he did. The stress caused Sorcha to Manifest early and Crystal damn near died from the fever!”

“As for Ashe, she is an animal!” Aislinn quickly added. “She may be clever and may have taken a shine to you girls but you can’t know what she’s thinking! You can’t trust her to put your safety over her natural instincts!”

I let out a long sigh and spoke up. “You’re wrong about Ashe. She’s as sentient as we are, possibly even more so. I guess that her kind communicates telepathically with one another and that their hosts can do that too if they’re smart enough to understand that. Ashe talked to us and explained things, and she knew things about the three of us. Things that aren’t apparent to others, like that Sorcha’s seal form would be white. She knew things about me too, Mom… about both of us.”

“How did you know…” Dr. Diaz started to ask.

Her question, which I assumed was regarding the color of Sorcha’s seal form, was cut off as my mother asked seriously, “What things, Crystal?”

“That… ummm… thing that we’re not supposed to tell anyone about,” I admitted awkwardly. “She kinda blabbed when she was telling us why she chose us and about Sorcha being aligned to Water and the Divine and having some sort of special power. Carmen kinda figured it out, Mom.”

Mom did not look happy about that and neither did Merriwynd. Pandora sighed as she put a hand on Mom’s shoulder and gently caressed it, telling her. “Honey, I’ve been telling you for years that you wouldn’t be able to keep your secret from the people that you live and work with forever. We all have secrets and we all trust one another with them. I wouldn’t go telling any new hires or the part-timers, but the people here right now, we’re family and I don’t think that a single one of them would think any differently of you or Crystal.”

“Except for Merriwynd, I’ve been here the longest of all of us,” Carmilla said from across the table. “Almost all of you know my secrets and my past, Tiff. We’ve all suspected that you had a big secret but we didn’t press because whatever that secret is, it doesn’t change the fact that every single one of us owes you and Pan more than we can ever repay, most of us owe you our lives. We have this family because of you and, whether you choose to share that secret with us or not, we will never let anyone do anything to break up this family or to hurt you or anyone else in this room.”

Every single person around the tables nodded grimly in agreement even as Sukoha spoke up as well. “I know that I was the newbie before your daughters and Melody showed up, but I agree. You and Pan were on your vacation when you found me in Rio de Janeiro, you didn’t have to help me but you did and I will always love you both for that. I owe you my life and more, so whatever secret you have is safe with me.”

“What happened?’ Melody asked, her curiosity piqued.

The Kuromihar shrugged but there was a pained look in her eyes as she explained, “I was on the run from ‘monster hunters’. They caught up and I was dying from my injuries when Pan drew them off and Tiff brought me to their hotel room. I was delirious then but ever since I always wondered how Tiff managed to get me past the crowds on the street and through the hotel lobby, how I healed up so quickly from the verge of death, and how she just happened to have a festival mask with a Divine enchantment that would make me look like a normie on the trip here until I could get settled in and register with the PDA.”

Mom sighed and rubbed her temples. “I guess that you’re all involved whether you want to be or not, as long as Crystal and I are close to you but this secret cannot leave this room. I’m not truly a River Nymph, I’m a Divine Nymph… a Muse. Crystal is one as well, though she really is a Snow Nymph, she’s just aligned to both Ice and the Divine.”

Lana, the only one of us even being close to being a normie summed up what everyone was thinking. “That doesn’t change anything except that we now know why you don’t use Water magic much, and now we know who put those insane wards and illusions on the building. Yeah, I agree that you should be hiding it on principle but neither of you should feel forced to hide it from your family.”

Annika nodded in agreement, and then the seven-foot Amazon smiled as she added, “And if anyone takes too much of an interest in either of you beyond what’s normal in a club like this, we’ll all have your backs and make sure that they aren’t on the right track.”

After that was all settled everyone was sworn to secrecy, even little Sorcha. I had been worried that a child so young might let it slip accidentally but now that she was Manifested the young Selkie was as magically bound to her vow as any Fey. It actually felt good to have one less secret from everyone.

We of course still had the secret of our real pasts, but everyone knew that Jimmy had worked on something for us and that it had been for our own safety so that was largely ignored. Many of those in the club had had Jimmy do such work for them, and all of them had pasts that they didn’t want to be dredged up. As Nixie had said with a haunted look in her eyes, “It’s better for us all that we live in the present and be the people we are now. The past is behind us and it should stay there.”

Before we all went our separate ways for the day, Mom had Carmen and I recount everything that we had learned from Ashe including what she had revealed about Sorcha’s power and what the three of us could expect as Salamander hosts. Both Carmen and Sorcha had identical marks to mine, even in the same location, so it was decided that next year when she was ready for school everyone would help to homeschool Sorcha until she was ready for high school. Between her ‘tattoo’, learning about her power, and being Manifested so soon, there was no chance she could go to a normie school. Hell, Carmen and I were going to have enough trouble explaining our own marks when we started at St. Michelle’s.

We were all getting up to go when Carmen’s mother cleared her throat and said, “Carmen, Crystal, and Sorcha. Tonight when the club opens I want you all to come in for a complete physical.”

“What?! But that’s not fair, I just had one yesterday!” I griped.

Both she and Mom gave me a glare that was cold enough to even make one of my kind shiver. Even Pandora was in on it. “Well then, maybe you’ll think twice the next time you form a symbiotic relationship with a creature from another plane, Crystal. I need to establish a new baseline for each of you now that you’re bonded to ensure the future health of both you and your symbiotes,” Dr. Diaz said in a tone that would allow no arguments.

I was still brooding about having to go through another physical as we went about our business for the day. Mom, Merriwynd, Jessica, Melody, and I took the truck and we planned to make a full day of it to try to get everything important done before we had to return for when the club opened at four. Our very first stop was a legal office where we met Mom’s roguish friend, Dannick.

Dannick turned out to be some sort of finance lawyer, though both Mom and Aunt Merry said that he was involved in some less than legal business as well, but usually for the right reasons. He looked like a pretty average guy with a bit of a Mediterranean look, but looking normal didn’t exactly mean anything and he did seem to be at the very least in-the-know about Paranormals since he had one of those blue pieces of graffiti by the office door and at least one layer of Divine magic to keep the normies out.

Despite his reputation as a rogue, Dannick’s business seemed to be doing very well, the office was pretty swank and he was wearing a very expensive suit. It also seemed that he was a regular at the club and while he hadn’t met me, Jessica, or Melody before he was friendly and only leered a little bit. I had briefly worried that he was going to ask where we got that much cash but I was much relieved when he said that it was better if he didn’t know.

Ten minutes, and a very modest fee for his services, later and we were on our way to the bank to open accounts with the checks that he had given us. Jess and I each both had one for just over ninety-thousand and Melody had one for the twenty thousand that she had saved while making very good money by killing very bad people, and making it look like she’d killed a few good ones too. It was nice to have a bank account again, especially one with such a hefty balance.

After the bank is when we got to do all the stuff that I had been looking forward to. First, we made our way to the government building so I could get the new license plates for the Charger. Then we went to buy the insurance, a set of winter tires, a security system, and a few other necessities like an ice scraper and some emergency supplies to put in the trunk. The others were a bit bored, but I was in my element and I was able to get a great price from the guy who sold me the tires, thanks to my new… um… assets.

Once all that was done we stopped back home to have lunch and drop off the stuff for the car so I could get it all set up later. It seemed that we still had one more important errand for the day though, registering with the PDA. Melody and Mom would be doing it as well; in fact, we would all go in together. With that in mind, Mom and Aunt Merry wanted us, and especially me, properly prepared. So we spent a good hour going over my new identity and background in my bedroom.

We had already gone overall of it extensively once with Jimmy, and I had all of the important details that could possibly be asked memorized, but they wanted to make sure that I was seeing Crystal Lumi Cummings as me. It had to feel like the truth to me so I wouldn’t mess up when asked questions about my identity and such. That wasn’t actually as hard as Mom and the others thought it would be for me though.

Seth had been declared dead and no longer existed, so I obviously wasn’t him anymore even if my body didn’t make that blatantly obvious. I had to be someone right? Well since Mom legally had two daughters and I wasn’t Jessica and since Mom had named me, and all my documents were in Crystal’s name, then that meant I was Crystal. So anything printed on those legal documents was the truth as it applied to Crystal, and thus me.

After all of that preparation was a lesson from Aunt Merry on how to tell selective truths since I wasn’t the actress that Jessica was and I could still possibly get tripped up. Aunt Merry suggested that I take the time to think about any questions before answering. We might be compelled to tell the truth but we were not compelled to answer immediately. So I was to take the time to think about not only any questions that I was asked but also how they were asked. Then I was to answer those questions truthfully based on what had actually been asked, not what I assumed they were asking.

Taking the time to think about any questions might also help with the other part of the plan as well. Mom and I are Nymphs and let’s face it, we have a reputation, especially when those Nymphs look as hot as us and have those slightly high pitched and bubbly musical voices that we were blessed (cursed) with. Yeah, so people generally assume that we’re bimbos from the moment that they meet us.

Now, normally, I would be fighting those preconceptions tooth and nail. However, Mom convinced me that this could work in our favor. If we played the pretty little Nymph bimbos then whoever the PDA had registering us would underestimate us and just figure that there was a good reason for the stereotype, especially since most people know that Paranormals of the Fey variety are compelled to tell the truth. They certainly won’t think that we’re technically lying through our pretty white teeth.

So we were going to play those roles to the hilt. With that in mind, we also dressed the part. Mom wore one of her really sexy sheath minidresses and four-inch stiletto shoes under her winter jacket. Mom was so gorgeous and generally bubbly that I couldn’t help but think that she’d have every guy there eating out of her hand.

I, on the other hand, wore an ice blue satin miniskirt that barely covered all of the important bits and a cream-colored silk halter top that not only left my midriff bare but also showed a damn lot of cleavage, especially with that push-up bra underneath, putting my large breasts on display. Over top I wore my newly altered leather jacket, left strategically unzipped and opened to show off my assets, and those boots and the purse that went so well with it. Jess even helped me with my makeup to sex me up just a bit more.

We had arrived at PDA headquarters by two-thirty. Just like the office in Vancouver the building was a large warehouse with an attached office affair boasting the sign Werehouse Imports and Exports. We made our way to the office portion and were escorted up to the second floor where the receptionist took Mom’s name and the purpose of our visit. She informed us that we would all have to have our intakes separately and gave us the forms to fill out before we were called to save on time.

Since Jess and I weren’t eighteen yet Mom had to sign a permission form for them to do our intake sessions alone and they had to have two people in the interview with us, one of whom had to be the same gender as us. Mom lucked out and got Jimmy for her intake interview but since I was called next I never got to see who would be interviewing Melody or Jess. I ended up with a somewhat pretty Japanese woman with a tail and cat ears and a middle-aged man who was slightly overweight with a bushy black mustache that I was half-afraid was going to reach out and grab me every time that he exhaled.

Soon we were all seated in an office and the man said, “Welcome Ms. Cummings, I’m Mr. Shaw and this is Ms. Nakamura, so what brings you here today?”

You know, I could have just answered that one properly right off the bat, but this was a perfect opportunity to build up my bimbo cred right out of the gate. I had committed to it and, in my mind, if you’re going to do something you should do it right. So I twirled my hair with my finger and smiled at them as I replied in my chirpy little voice, “A car.”

Ms. Nakamura gave me a look that just screamed that I made her embarrassed to be female. While Mr. Shaw sighed and tried again. “Do you know why you’re here in this office today, Ms. Cummings?”

I quickly nodded. “Yeah, Mom said that we were here to register with the PDA.”

“Good,” Ms. Nakamura said with a relieved expression. “Do you know what PDA stands for?”

I did, but I also knew a few other things that it could stand for so I was able to reply proudly, “Public Displays of Affection. I get in trouble for those all the time.”

“Yes, it does stand for that, but here it stands for Paranormal Defense Agency,” she countered, barely suppressing a groan. “We protect people from dangerous Paranormals and provide services to Paranormals like yourself who just want to fit in. Now, to help you properly we need to know a few things about you that weren’t covered in the basic forms that you filled out.”

“Oh, do you mean things like my favorite color and stuff?” I ventured. “I really like white and ice blue, they’re so cool and relaxing, don’t you think?”

“That’s… not exactly what she was talking about,” Mr. Shaw told me, looking like he suddenly wished that he was anywhere but inside that room with me. “You and your mother are the first Nymphs that we’ve had register locally. Do you have any specific dietary requirements?”

“I need to eat,” I said thoughtfully after a moment. Then after several long seconds of just letting that hang there, I threw them a bone. “Umm… I think that we can eat most normal stuff, we eat a lot of the same stuff that the Fey do.” I figured that I had to give them a little something once in a while so they didn’t start thinking to ask very specific questions. That could screw up everything. I noticed though that most of the questions seemed to be standard and were actually typed out on the same paper that he was jotting his notes down on.

“Are there any other requirements that you have for your everyday life?” Ms. Nakamura asked before suddenly thinking better and specifying, “Other than breathing and all of the other things that the normies need to do too.”

“I need to wear natural fibers and I need to be near ice or snow as much as I can but we have this nice big walk-in freezer at home and I guess I can always go there if I need to be near my element. Oh, and I need to have sex. A lot. Like, soo much sex. I don’t think I need your help with that though, I can do that at home.” I replied, letting out a sigh as I considered how damn horny I was.

Mr. Shaw looked pretty happy with that answer until I got to the sex part. Still, he tried to be enthusiastic as he spoke again. “Great, now we’re making progress! Now, we’re aware that there is a large Paranormal criminal element in the area and we’re afraid that your kind might make a tempting target for them, Ms. Cummings. Do you have any special features that could be used to identify you should we need to search for you?”

I twirled my hair again as I thought about the question. Then, as if inspired by the action I beamed at them. “I have long white hair, I’m really pretty, I’m a Nymph, and I have an awesome tattoo. D’you wanna see it?” As I said the last I reached up as if to start taking off my jacket.

“No! No, we… uhh… don’t need to see it, Ms. Cummings. Could you just show us where it is and give us a brief description?” Mr. Shaw quickly countered, making me wonder just where he thought my tattoo was.

I quickly patted my upper right arm and smiled. “It’s right here and it kinda looks like a red and black dragon with its wings wrapped around my arm.”

“Your form says that you can use Ice magic, Ms. Cummings. Do you have any other Paranormal abilities that you’d like to declare?” Ms. Nakamura asked, looking very much as if she didn’t think I could chew gum and walk at the same time.

“Not that I’d like to declare,” I thought to myself with relief that she had added that last bit. Oh well, at least it gave me an out on answering the question. I carefully considered how best to answer that question in a way that might satisfy them without giving myself away. Selective truths for the win.

“Any abilities at all?” Mr. Shaw asked in annoyance after I had been sitting there thinking and twirling my hair for a few minutes.

“I’m thinking,” I admitted chirpily as I put a cute little pout on my face for good measure. I also silently thanked him for making that question so much easier to answer, not to mention more entertaining. For me anyway.

“Don’t hurt yourself, Kid,” Ms. Nakamura mumbled with a sigh.

I was mildly offended at that, pretending to be an idiot doesn’t come easy you know. I let her stew for another minute as I ‘thought’ before finally answering. “Well… let’s see… I can drive a car, and I have a twin sister who’s almost as pretty as me and it’s like we’re totally in each other’s heads sometimes, y’know? Oh! And I’m really, really good at sex! I just love sex, don’t you? I know you’re not as pretty as me, but you don’t need to be pretty to love sex, right? My mom owns a club and works there as an entertainer and she gets paid to take off her clothes, can you believe that?! She gets to have lots and lots of sex too; did I say how much I love sex? She gets to have sooo much sex, and she says I can do that too when I turn eighteen. I think I’d just love to do that when I’m old enough so I can get all the wild and crazy sex I want. Doesn’t that just sound sooo awesome, Ms…? I… uhhh… forgot your name.”

By the time that I had finished blathering merrily along, Ms. Nakamura looked like she wanted to strangle me and Mr. Shaw looked very uncomfortable in his seat as he said, “I… uhh… think that’s all we need, Ms. Cummings. You can go back to the waiting room now. Ms. Nakamura will be happy to show you the way.”

I had a pretty good idea why he wasn’t standing up to see me off himself and I had to stifle a giggle that, while it would have been very appropriate for my role, would not have been good for my self-image. Hey, at least I wasn’t suffering alone with rampant horniness. Oh, and by the way, Ms. Nakamura did not seem happy at all to escort me while I extolled the virtues of lots of sex and getting paid for it, and questioned her about why even someone as plain as her would want to do a boring job like hers when they could have sex all day, every day. Her tail was bristling and her ears were flat on her head by the time we returned to the waiting room.

By three-thirty, we were all heading home with lists of local services and stores that would be suitable for us and new PDA registration cards. The cards looked like customer loyalty cards for Werehouse Imports and Exports and I guess they were that too, but our customer numbers were actually our PDA registration numbers. As we pulled into the underground garage beneath the club I was feeling very accomplished and couldn’t wait to get to work on getting the Charger ready for the road.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 14 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 14: Adventures in Dating

Working on the Charger had to wait, unfortunately. The club was just getting ready to open as we arrived home and I was reminded that Carmen’s mother wanted to spend more quality time with me in the clinic. Anxious to just get it over with, I headed up to the third floor with Melody and Jessica while Mom and Aunt Merry got off on the first floor to prepare for work.

Since Carmen and Sorcha wanted to be poked and prodded as little as I did, I got to go first. I was still on the fence about whether I should be happy about that or not as I sat naked on the examination table. I didn’t think that Dr. Diaz could do more tests or ask more awkward questions than she did before, but I was to be surprised. After doing all of the same tests that she did before, taking my temperature, taking blood and other samples for analysis, and feeling around everywhere she could think of to try to figure out where my symbiotic Salamander might be camped out she asked, “Have you noticed anything abnormal or concerning since you woke up this morning Crystal?”

“Like I’d know if I did,” I muttered. “I’ve had this body for what, almost a week? I thought that I’d be able to sense where Cinder is in my body, but I don’t really feel anything, at least not physically. I can always feel her presence in the back of my mind though and I think I can tell when she’s conscious and aware or sleeping.”

Dr. Diaz reached out to pat my shoulder gently and smiled at me. “I’m sure you’ll get used to all of this. From what you said that Ashe told you and what I felt, I don’t think that you would physically feel her presence though. While in your body, Cinder is in her pure energy form and I believe that energy has been spread evenly throughout your body to prevent any risks to the host’s health. Part of that energy is heat, so that does explain why your running body temperature now seems to be about two degrees hotter than average, I’ll have to make a note of that in your file. Anything else, Crystal?”

“Cinder seems to be sleeping a lot and when she’s awake I try to send her loving, happy, and encouraging thoughts. And I kind of talk to her when she’s awake.” My cheeks flushed in embarrassment and I hurried to add, “I did notice that I needed to eat quite a bit more to feel full at lunch but Ashe did say to expect that since I’m eating for two now.”

“Don’t feel embarrassed for nurturing the new life inside you, Crystal. It’s a very maternal thing to do and I think that you’re wise to start developing a healthy and loving relationship with her from the start since and you’re going to be together for a very long time. Cinder is an infant so it’s to be expected that she won’t be active much at first but, once she becomes more active, you should start training her and setting some ground rules as best you can, parenting is equal parts love and discipline. I wouldn’t worry about having to eat more either since your metabolism seems to be adjusting to your new state, just try not to overdo it,” Carmen’s mother advised.

“Ummm… okay, is there anything else?” I asked uncertainly.

“Have you started taking the birth control pills that I prescribed yet?”

I nodded, looking down at the floor. “Rhissa suggested that I take them after breakfast every day, so I get into a routine. I took my first one this morning before we went out.”

“Rhissa was right. Now is a good time for you to be getting into routines since you’re adjusting to a new life anyway,” Dr. Diaz said approvingly as she went to one of the cupboards and opened it to retrieve a small paper bag that she placed beside me on the examination table.

“What’s in the bag?” I asked, glancing down at it.

As casually as if she was talking about the weather, the Healer said, “Fey-safe condoms. I’d suggest you put half in your purse and the other half in your nightstand for now. Use a condom every time you have sex with a man. I would also suggest that you put panty-liners in your purse and wear one whenever you go out. We can’t be sure when your period will start and it will help preserve your panties when you’re feeling aroused. You will likely need more than that when your period does start though, so keep tampons in your purse as well. If you need help on figuring out how to use them when the time comes, just ask me or your mother.”

I sighed as I looked at the bag and tried not to groan as well as I said, “Yes, Dr. Diaz. I… think Jess is going to cover that though. We bought a bunch of stuff like that at the drugstore that would be safe for me to use and she mentioned teaching me to use everything we got there when she starts her girl boot camp for me so I can blend in at school.”

“Good,” she said with a nod. “I’ll let you get dressed then. Could you let Carmen know that it’s her turn next?”

Jessica, Melody, and Carmen were all in the common room watching cartoons with Sorcha when I got there and passed on Dr. Diaz’s message. “You’re up next, Carmen,” I told her.

“Ugh, how bad was it Crystal?” the younger teen girl asked as she stood up.

“She did every test possible, and then some. She even wanted blood and other samples to send to a friend of hers at the PDA clinic for lab work.

Carmen sighed and nodded. “I figured as much. As much as I want to do what she does when I’m older I really hate being on the patient end of things. Wish me luck, girls.”

“Good luck,” we all called out as she headed down the hallway, looking to all the world like she was headed to her execution rather than to see her mother.

Once she was gone I turned toward Jessica. “Umm… Sis? Y’know those lessons that you wanted to start giving me?”

My sister gave me a long look and tried to cover her smile as she said, “Let me guess, you want to wait to start on those tomorrow so you can go tinker with your beast. Go ahead, Sis, and have fun. You earned it, Mom said you did great with your intake appointment after all.” She knew me so well.

“Yeah, I’d like to get it road-ready. I was going to ask Lou if he wanted to tag along as a peace offering but he’s on Werewolf lockdown again tonight. But yeah, apparently I make a pretty convincing bimbo. By the time I was done the lady looked like she was ready to pull her hair out and the guy was in no condition to walk me back to the waiting room,” I told her with a laugh. Then I asked, “Are you sure, Jess? I know that you wanted to get this stuff done as soon as possible.”

Jessica reached up to hug me and told me sternly, “Don’t worry about it. It’ll be better to start first thing in the morning before you shower anyway. Besides, Carmen and I were thinking of teaching Sorcha how to play Monopoly.”

“I’ll come and give you a hand, Crystal. Demon strength has to be useful for something right?” Melody offered.

“Thanks, Melody, maybe we can get things finished up before I start getting hungry for dinner,” I replied with a smile as I thought about how nice it might be to have a bit of alone time with her. We made our way to the elevators and headed down to the garage and on the ride down I told Mel what it was like having a Salamander sharing space in my body and mind.

“It sounds cool, hopefully, I’ll be able to get one of Ashe’s next clutch. I’m already fireproof but having a Salamander to call on would give me a source of fire whenever I might need to use my magic, once it was old enough to stoke a flame. It sounds like there are a few useful abilities with that deal. How do you get used to them being in your mind all the time though?” the half-Demon spoke pensively as we exited the elevator and headed toward the Charger.

“It’s a little weird at first,” I admitted, “but kind of comforting too in a way. She sleeps most of the time right now and I don’t get thoughts from her really, at least not yet, just emotions. I’ll probably be used to it by the time she’s able to actually communicate with me. It does seem to be a good deal, though the speaking mind-to-mind with Carmen, Sorcha, and Ashe is gonna take some getting used to. I kinda wish that Jess could get one though, it would make that twin-speak thing she wants us to work on so much easier.”

I put my new coveralls and gloves on over top of my clothes and we got to work. Don’t judge me, axle grease is a bitch to get out of clothes, I just bought that outfit yesterday, and as comfortable as I might be naked I was not getting down and dirty without something between me and the grease. Melody was a big help when it came to changing the tires. I wasn’t as strong as I used to be and some of those lug nuts were pretty tight from not being changed for a while. With her help It didn’t take long to get them changed, the security system actually took longer to install.

As we worked we listened to the radio, though that brought to mind something else that I wanted to get for the Charger. The sound system was old; the speakers sounded tinny, there was no subwoofer, and the only option besides radio was a tape deck. That got me trying to hear the sound from the driver’s seat, front passenger seat, and the rear seat and I wasn’t really happy with it at all. Though I managed to forget about it for a short time as All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You, by Heart, started playing on the oldies station.

Don’t you just love mood music? And we were already in the back seat so things started getting pretty steamy. We were going at it hot and heavy and I was eagerly trying to pull both of our clothes off when she held me down, holding my wrists secure. There was this feeling of domination about it and I could feel the fire of lust in me burning even hotter as I realized that I liked being dominated by her and wanted more. I wanted her so bad as she looked down at me, and I could see the desire in her own eyes, even as she said in this sexy husky voice, “Crystal, we… should… stop. Let’s just… cool off.”

I was just a little bit blindsided by that. Seriously, what the fuck? I wanted her now dammit, but that feeling of being dominated as she held me down just felt so right that I wanted, no needed, to obey. I needed to please her. In retrospect, I don’t think I would have if it was anyone else but it was Melody and for some reason as much as I wanted her to screw my brains out right then, it was also important to me that she be in charge of that and for some reason she didn’t seem as happy as I was with the idea of going further.

“I… what… you don’t want me?” I half gasped in desperate need, even as I tried to get some semblance of self-control again. The mere thought that she didn’t want me, that this wasn’t making her happy was like a knife to my heart.

“I want you… I want you so fucking bad right now, Crystal,” Melody replied throatily. “I… just… I don’t want our first time to be like this. We haven’t even been on a date yet.”

“I’m a Nymph,” I joked weakly, “I thought this was a date.” I was torn between wanting her to take me and make me her own right then and wanting to make her happy. It confused me that she wouldn’t want me right then either, or rather that she could hold off on that desire.

She gave me a stern and serious look and I felt all of my remaining resistance fall away as she spoke. “Please, don’t put yourself down like that, Crystal, you deserve better. I don’t want you to think that this is just a booty call. I want more than sex, I want you, and I want to show you that I want you for more than that admittedly sexy body of yours. I want to do this the right way; the way you deserve. I want us to go on a date first and I want your first time to be special, not just some hook-up in the back seat of your car.”

I… just… wow. That was, like the sweetest thing ever and my heart melted in my chest. I could have kissed her right then. I did kiss her. It was full of fire and passion, but I also stopped when she broke it off. As much as I wanted her right now, I couldn’t not think of her feelings, especially when she was so obviously considering mine. I fought to get my breathing under control and then looked up at her, my heart hammering away in my chest as I breathily whispered, “So… a date, huh? We could… umm… go to dinner.”

“What, now?” Melody asked, looking a bit shocked at the abruptness of it, despite her insistence that we date before getting to what we both really wanted to be doing right now.

“Yeah, it is dinner time,” I said, nodding. “I’m getting hungry and there was a nice looking old-fashioned diner near the big auto parts place where I got the stuff for the car. I… kinda want to price out a new stereo system anyway if they’re still open, and maybe a GPS too since we’re in a strange city and don’t really know our way around yet. We could go do that real quick, have dinner, and then come back here and go to my room to talk… or whatever.”

“We shouldn’t be going out alone, Crystal,” she said uncertainly. “Like you said, this is a strange city and we don’t know it well yet.”

“Well, you are supposed to be my bodyguard, right? So I think I should be safe with you. You can bring your gun and your big-ass purse of badness if you want, and I’ll have my Para-mace in my purse too. We’ll be gone like two hours max, and we’ll tell the others where we’re going.”

After putting away all the tools and car paraphernalia, informing the others of our date, enduring my sister’s know-it-all smirk following that announcement, and then grabbing our purses, we climbed into the Charger to go on our first date. I wore the same thing I had worn to the PDA office earlier for three reasons. First, I didn’t want to waste time changing clothes when there was food and possibly sex to get to later. Secondly, I looked hot in it. And the third reason was that if something did happen while we were out I wanted people to underestimate me and I might have to pull the bimbo card.

Auto-Worx Parts ‘n Mods was still open when we got there. It was a Paranormal-run business that Pandora had suggested when I had first mentioned getting stuff for the car the day before and wasn’t too far of a drive from the club. The outside of the old four-bay garage and showroom had illusions on it to make it look like it was boarded up but since we weren’t normies I just pulled into one of the opened bays since parking outside would draw attention to the building.

We stepped out of the Charger and I heard a whistle. “Damn, girl. That is one sweet ride.” The owner of the whistle and the voice was a tall and muscular human-looking woman maybe in her mid-twenties with spiky black hair and more piercings than I had ever seen on a single person before, and those were just the visible ones. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and seemed to be the only one working this late. I guessed that the owner and the cute guy that I had gotten a good deal on the tires from had already gone home for the day.

“It was my Dad’s, he… left it to me when he died,” I told the woman, whose name patch claimed that her name was Lita. “The sound system totally sucks and I want something better, maybe something so I can plug in my MP3 player. I want a GPS too, I’m kinda new in town and I’m not very good with remembering directions and stuff.” I gave my hair a twirl on my finger and tried to look vacuous.

Lita smiled at me. “I’m Lita, and I can hook you right up. New in town, huh? Never seen anything like you around here before, I’d say Fey but they’re usually a lot more…. compact. Your friend looks Human, is she some sort of Mage? I’m a Metal Mage myself.”

“Thanks, Lita,” I replied with a smile of my own, trying to be friendly and bubbly while Melody did her best to look harmless and kept quiet. “I’m Crystal and this is my BFF, Melody. I’m a Ny… uhh… kinda a cousin to the Fey,” I quickly corrected myself as I thought about what I could say to a total stranger that would be true but not give too much away. “Yeah, Mel uses Fire magic.” That wasn’t quite a lie, she does use Fire magic so technically that does make her a kind of mage and she is half human.

If she had caught my quickly covered slip of the tongue she didn’t give any indication of it. She showed me some various speaker and subwoofer sets but since I was a gearhead and not a sound type person I had to think a lot about what she was telling me and had trouble concentrating on half of it as horny as I still was. I was a bit distracted and that made things take a bit longer. After she had let us listen to a few in the showroom I was able to choose one that I thought would be better for the Charger as well as a decent MP3 hook-up and GPS system.

“If you don’t mind waiting an hour I could get all of this installed for you, you’re my only customer right now and it’ll only cost you an extra fifty bucks,” Lita offered as we headed to the counter so I could pay for my new gear.

I figured that I was probably going to need help installing the speakers and shit anyway since I’d never done that kind of work before and the sound had to be properly balanced. So, since Melody and I were planning on going to eat anyway I agreed, “Thanks, that would be totally awesome. Mel and I were going to go have dinner at that diner down the street anyway.”

“Cool, everything should be set up by the time you’re done eating,” she said as she processed my payment.

I had to leave the trunk and the driver’s side door open for her to do the installs but I’ve watched Ferris Bueller’s Day Off enough times to know better than leaving my keys with a perfect stranger. So, being the ditzy blonde that I am, I was just so distracted by something that Mel said that I put my keys in my purse without thinking as we left for the diner.

Benny’s Diner wasn’t a Paranormal business and seemed to be pretty popular so it was about half full of normies having an evening meal or just chatting over coffee. Melody and I claimed a booth and I was extremely conscious of the number of stares I was receiving by the time our waitress arrived to give us menus and take our drink orders. ‘Marge’ was a heavyset woman with her more grey than brown hair in a pixie cut that did not flatter her at all. I almost winced at the sidelong glance she had cast my way as she asked, “What can I get you to drink, ladies?”

It was not lost on me that she used an ironic tone when she said the word ladies either. Hey, don’t hate me because I’m beautiful. Still, I managed to survive ordering my orange juice as Melody asked for a Coke. “Wow, resentful much?” I muttered as Marge headed back behind the bar to get our drinks and give us time to decide what we wanted to order.

“You’re going to get that kind of attention Crystal, especially around normies,” Melody said quietly, taking my hand in her own and giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Yeah, I know. I can’t really blend in too well now, looking like I do, can I?” I responded with a sigh.

Melody gave my hand another gentle squeeze. “Try not to let it get you down, Crystal. We’re on a date, so let’s get to know one another better and try to enjoy ourselves.”

We were quiet then for a few minutes as we tried to decide what to order. We were both ready by the time Marge returned with her notepad and our drinks and asked, “What would you ladies like?” Again with the ironic ‘ladies’ as she looked pointedly at the way I was dressed.

“I’ll have the double bacon cheeseburger and fries,” Melody said in a carefully controlled voice.

“Ooh, can I get the large chef’s salad, the grilled chicken burger with fries, and a piece of blueberry pie with a side of respect and professionalism?” If Marge caught the last bit, she didn’t show it but then nobody takes me seriously with my chirpy voice and looks. Hell, I could see it in her eyes, she thought I was an airhead and was more concerned with the amount of food that I had just ordered. I had almost said I was eating for two but managed to stop that little admission. Marge probably would have loved that, thinking I’m some slut who’s going to become a teenage mom and swell up like a blimp.

Melody saved me and made me grin as she said, “Oh, she has a crazy metabolism. She eats whatever she wants and never gains a pound. I wish that I could do that.” Considering the grease platter that Melody had just ordered, the fact that she was so skinny herself, and her pointed look at Marge I couldn’t help but giggle. I think I’m in love.

Marge, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be amused. Still, she returned to the kitchen to place our orders as I giggled away. “That was absolutely demonic,” I said once I managed to calm myself a bit.

“I didn’t like her attitude,” Melody grumbled with a dark expression on her face. “Her jealousy is her problem, not yours. It’s not your fault that you’re good-looking and you’ve never done anything to her, except point out her lack of respect and professionalism. Even then, you only did it after she deserved it.”

“Not that she even seemed to notice,” I said with a sigh. “I’m sorry, this isn’t really turning out to be the best first date, is it?”

“I’m with you, Crystal. Nothing else matters,” she said as she leaned over the table to kiss me.

We were at the diner for a little more than an hour. We couldn’t really say much about our current lives or interests with all the normies around but we did try to get to know each other better as we ate. Most of that talk consisted of stories about ourselves growing up and our dreams before our lives were sent hurtling in a different direction when we Manifested. We kept our conversation low for the most part when talking about anything else, though I did giggle a lot as Melody related stories about her former occupation.

What? She had a lot of funny stories about things that had happened when she was killing people. My favorite was about the Death Mage that she had surprised in the shower. Apparently, when she had shown up in his hotel bathroom looking all Demon-like and pointing that big gun of hers at him, the big bad killer had shrieked like a little girl, dropped his soap, slipped on it, and brained himself on the side of the bathtub. She didn’t have to do a thing.

Another reason that we took so long was that I was trying to take Carmen’s advice about taking smaller bites and being more ladylike as I ate. Also, my taking so long and my constant giggling seemed to annoy Marge. So whenever she showed up at the table to ask if we needed anything else or to bring the check, I played up the bimbo card to the hilt just to fuck with her.

We were getting attention though. It wasn’t really my appearance or our occasional kisses that brought on that attention though, okay maybe it was with the normies, but I thought that was all there was to it until Melody sighed, nodded her head subtly toward a booth not too far from us, and said in a hushed tone, “We should pay the bill and get out of here. Those four guys are watching you.”

I had barely heard her, and since I was right across from her I doubted that anyone else could, as good as my hearing is. I whispered back, “Half the damn diner has been watching me since we got here. I’m kinda noticeable among normies, even with my ears covered.”

“Yeah, but most of those normies have been sneaking glances and then quickly looking away, these guys haven’t taken their eyes off you since they sat down. They’ve been at that table for over half an hour and they’re nursing the same cups of coffee that they started with. They’re not normies either, they smell like Troll changelings.” She return-whispered behind her glass of cola, making it look like she was taking a long sip.

I closed my eyes for just a moment to try and tune out everything around me and discovered that she was right. I could sense the magic of their glamours. “Shit,” I silently cursed. With Fey changelings, the odds are usually fifty-fifty whether they are going to be trouble but Troll changelings are selfish, greedy, and violent. They also have thick skin that makes them difficult to hurt, and they’re strong and quick on their feet. Oh, and they generally eat Humans.

I tried to send Carmen, or even Ashe, a message through the Salamander network but I couldn’t reach them. We were several kilometers away though so it wasn’t surprising that I was out of range. I reached for the cellphone pocket of my purse but Melody stood up and took my hand to walk me toward the cash register to pay our bill. As soon as we were turned away she whispered, “No. If they think you’re calling for help or if we take too long by sitting around, now that they realize that we’ve noticed them, they’re going to turn on the people in here. We get them to follow us outside and then we either take them down or hightail it.”

I was scared and, since she seemed to be awake at the moment, that was making Cinder scared too. I tried to soothe her and calm myself as Melody paid for our meals and we headed outside. It was snowing, which helped me to calm down a bit but the Trolls followed the moment we stepped out the door and we hurried to make our way back toward the parts store and the Charger. I think that Melody and I both sensed the other three other trolls in the alley ahead of us before they even stepped out in an attempt to cut us off.

Two of them had guns and I could feel something being pressed against my back. Melody raised her hands as we were surrounded and I really hoped that she had a plan as she said to the non-glamoured trolls in front of us, “Whoa, guys. You don’t want to eat me, I’m gamey.”

“Keep those hands where we can see them Mage,” One of the Trolls behind us said as we were shoved into the alley and out of sight of the street. “If I see a lighter or anything else that looks like it might make a flame we’ll kill you now and eat you later. You’re not the prize here, the Nymph is. Keurst, get the bimbo’s keys.”

“My keys?” I had a bad feeling that I knew where this was going. See, I was right not to trust that bitch with my car keys. We were still too close to the normies, Melody couldn’t use her gun here without getting a lot of attention and we were really outnumbered.

One of the trolls, who I had to assume was Keurst, was stepping forward to reach for my purse as the speaker smiled at me revealing a mouth full of yellowed teeth in his lumpy grey face. “Fuck yeah, Lita has been looking for a classic muscle car to trick out for one of the local street racers for a while now, he’s willing to pay top dollar, but not near as much as we’ll get for you once we find a buyer in the Caverns. She gets to sell your car and we get to sell you, everybody wins.”

“What do I win?” I asked, glaring at them as I backed away from Keurst and against the alley-facing wall of the diner with my purse clutched tight behind my back. My heart was racing in my chest and Cinder’s fear filling my mind was making it hard to focus.

“You get to…”

Whatever he was about to say was cut off by Keurst’s scream as I felt my magic go off and two blood-tinged spikes of ice erupted from the tops of his sneakers. Melody wasted no time, transforming into her natural half-Demon form and raking her claws across the eyes of the changeling closest to her, making him drop his gun, before grabbing him by the arm and tossing him at the other two Trolls without glamours. I reached for Melody’s arm in the confusion as I thought, “Oh please work…”

Picturing Ashe’s mindscape in my mind I thought about how very much I would rather be on the Fire Plane. I felt a sort of pulling and twisting sensation and a lurching in my stomach as I grabbed Melody’s hand and the alley around us disappeared. We were standing upon smooth black stone before a lake of lava and flame and even the sky seemed to burn. I couldn’t feel the heat that I knew must be present but I wasn’t exactly comfortable either. The acrid burning air was barely breathable; we wouldn’t be able to stay here long.

“I’m guessing this is the Fire Plane?” Melody said as she looked around, gathering flames into a ball in her hand. At my nod, she grinned. “Well, now that I’ve been here once, I should have no problems getting back if I need to. We should get to the garage and your car. It’s probably the first place they’ll look, but there won’t be so many normies around and we’ll have an advantage.”

“Yeah, we can phone home if we need to once we’re back on the Material Plane too but I doubt that anyone can get to us before those Trolls do. We could go straight home but I’m not letting that bitch have any time to contact her buyer and try to unload the Charger. I say let’s get my car and try to make a break for it,” I agreed before muttering, “I wish I knew how to use my magic consciously.”

Melody frowned and took my hand with the one not holding the massive fireball. “I’m mostly self-taught, but here’s basically what I do. I feel for the heat of the Fire element inside me and then use it to call on the flames around me, direct them, and shape them to my will. You should be able to feel the coldness of Ice and the light of the Divine so grab on to one and think hard about what you want it to do with what’s available nearby.”

I held off on an urge to take a deep breath and quickly nodded. “Okay, let’s go.

I felt that pulling, twisting, and lurching sensation once again as I thought about the garage door of the bay where we had left the Charger. Then we were there, but I could see just why Melody didn’t like traveling between planes with passengers repeatedly, it was really tiring. I ignored the wave of exhaustion, felt for the cold feeling inside myself, and reached for the snow and ice on the ground outside as I took a quick look around.

Lita had just closed the trunk of the Charger and was talking on a cellphone, not having noticed us yet. “I charged to parts to your card and I’ve got them in the trunk. Once I get the keys I’ll take it to my place, do the rest of the work there, and give it a new paint job. I can’t have it here when the boss shows in the morning, the car is too noticeable and people might come asking questions about it and the former owner. You’re going to love it when it’s ready, Jocko, this baby is in pristine condition.” She was smiling as she ran her hand along the driver’s side.

“You’re not taking that anywhere, Bitch,” Melody half-growled, her fireball still in hand.

“Get your hands off my car. Now.” I was tired and it was taking a lot of concentration but I now had five really big icicles floating in the air in front of me and aimed right at Lita.

“Should have known that I couldn’t count on those morons,” Lita grumbled as she turned off the phone. “Or maybe not,” she added with a nasty smile as the gang of Trolls showed up, two of them half dragging Keurst. Even if I could have gotten into the Charger and started it in time, they were between us and the way out. Lita was still smiling that nasty smile as a length of chain flew at me from the ceiling. Oh right, Metal Mage. Dammit.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 15 of A Cold Fey In Hell. The next Patreon chapter should hopefully be out later tonight. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 15: Hot and Heavy

“I should have just nailed her from behind before she realized that we were here,” I thought to myself bitterly as I sent one of my icicles flying toward Lita and tried to avoid the chain flying at me and attempting to entangle me. Okay, so I see myself as the good guy here, and that wouldn’t have been a very good guy thing to do, but it would have been damn satisfying and possibly have saved me having to fight her like this. Besides, as uncomfortable as I was with the idea, when we did take her and her Troll buddies down I figured that we might have to make sure they weren’t going to get up again, ever.

Lita had obviously figured out the whole ‘I’m a Nymph’ thing if she sent those Trolls to collect me for sale. If I allowed her to stick around she would just make other attempts on both me and my car and, since the sales invoice for the parts and work had my home address, she wouldn’t have to look very hard. No, it was better for me and everyone around me if this little problem ended permanently.

Melody seemed to agree with that sentiment as she threw that massive fireball at the pair of Trolls holding the guns before either of them even knew what hit them. While they were screaming, tossing their half-melted weapons aside, and throwing themselves into a snowbank trying to put themselves out she threw herself at the others to fight them up close and personal. I approved of her decision. For one thing, we were still too close to public areas for her to use that big gun of hers. It makes a lot of noise and a big mess when she shoots something or someone with it. Also, both it and the bullets were metal and Lita could have possibly thought to use them to her advantage, so it looked like Melody wanted all guns out of the equation.

Trolls are strong, fast, and have thick skin, but with Keurst unable to stand on his own and two others badly burned I was going to have to give Melody the advantage in this fight. Trolls are nowhere near as strong as Demons, or even half-Demons, and their thick skin wasn’t going to do much good against her claws. Demon claws can cut through just about anything, especially with enough strength and determination behind them. Between that and her regeneration, Melody wouldn’t have much trouble with them.

With that, I tried to focus on my own opponent, who might just have the advantage over me. She knew how to use her magic while I was still a total newbie at this kind of stuff with only a three-second lesson from Melody under my belt. Normally in the dead of winter, I’d have the advantage even like that with Ice being a secondary element and Metal only a tertiary one. And Metal is a sub-element of Earth and Ice, meaning that under the right circumstances I could control it as well.

This was far from a normal situation though and Lita had more experience and a garage full of metal tools that she could throw at me, not to mention the Charger, though I doubted that she wanted it damaged any more than I did. If I wanted to win this fight, I was going to have to use my brain. I avoided the chain trying to wrap around me like a snake with dancer-like grace and sent one of my remaining icicles flying toward her.

Lita stepped aside and my icicle went wide as I focused on forming two of the others into a shield of sorts to block the chain. She sneered as my shield shattered and the icicle hit the wall behind her. “You’re not very good at this, are you? Stupid bimbo, I’ll give you and your little Fire Mage friend props for courage but you should have just run and let me have the car while you had a chance.”

I couldn’t help but let out a giggle as I concentrated on my plan and informed Lita, “You didn’t get a very good look at Mel when we came back, did you? She’s not a Mage, she’s a Demon, and right now she’s tearing your buddies a new one.” I threw the last icicle at her and she stepped back as it went wide again and hit the floor rather than her as she sent the chain after me again.

“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re an idiot,” Lita snorted dismissively. “You just used the last of your ice and I have plenty of metal to take down you and your friend.” Then her eyes widened as the chain stopped before hitting me. “Wha…”

“I froze the chain, Bimbo, and Ice trumps Metal,” I told her with a smirk as I threw the chain at her to make it appear like I was taking one out of her book and trying to tie her up. A massive wrench flew into her hand, but she stepped back from the flying chain and slipped on the ice that I had coated the floor with. The second that she lost her footing I threw myself forward to tackle her, calling back over my shoulder, “Melody! I’m pullin’ a Mitchell with a Salamander twist! Bring those assholes when you’re done with them, no loose ends!”

As soon as I made physical contact with Lita I focused on taking us both to the Fire Plane. It was tiring but at least I wasn’t disoriented like Lita was. As she looked around in confusion and choked on what passed for air, I wound up, punched her in the face, and then took off running. She still had that wrench after all, and Nymphs aren’t really built for physical fights. Like I’ve said before, we’re lovers, not fighters. Besides, I had other plans.

I figured that Lita would have problems keeping up with me even though she looked like she was in pretty good shape. The air was barely breathable but with Cinder keeping me healthy, and this being her natural environment, I probably wouldn’t suffer any long-term effects from it. I also wasn’t affected by the heat so I likely wouldn’t tire as easily. As I ran off I called out along the Salamander network, ~Ummm… help?~

My mind was filled with a sense of surprise and wonder as a presence that felt male to me responded. ~One of us has bonded to a sentient? Her mind is so young, still an infant, and you too seem little more than a child. This is interesting, tell me of your need, Child.~

~Well, I’m being chased by a Metal Mage who tried to steal my car and get me sold into slavery, though I’m pretty sure that she’s pissed enough to kill me with that wrench of hers now. I brought her here because I figured that I can survive here better but I’m not really built for fighting, I don’t know how to use my magic very well yet even if I could get ice here, and I’m kind of worried that if I leave her here she might bond to one of your kind and come after me again,~ I explained hurriedly as I ran and tried to control my breathing.

~I do not think that one aligned to Metal could survive the bonding. I would not have thought someone aligned to Ice could either, but I can feel the Light of the Divine within you as well. We shall take care of your problem, just follow the pull of my voice, Child. My name is…~ What followed wasn’t so much a name as I knew them but rather a collection of musical notes and mental images. I could see why Ashe said that human tongues wouldn’t be able to pronounce their names, I couldn’t even think it.

My new friend seemed to recognize my difficulty and I felt his warm patience as he said, ~You may call me whatever is easiest for you.~

~How about Sal?~ I inquired as I headed off in the direction of the pull of his mental voice. A quick look over my shoulder showed Lita still following, wrench in hand, and she looked pissed. I quickly turned my attention back to watching where I was going and keeping ahead of her.

~That would be acceptable,~ Sal agreed with something like humor as I ran across the unfamiliar terrain toward his presence.

I had thought that the Fire Plane was all just black rock and lava pits but the area that we had appeared in was a small area with patches of ash-covered soil that harbored some hardy-looking plants, a pair of hot springs, and even a geyser of steaming water. I guessed that since I hadn’t thought of where specifically I had wanted to appear on the Fire Plane that we had just appeared somewhere random. I would have to be careful about that in the future.

I had wondered how anything managed to live here, but I guess that while Fire might be the dominant element on this plane, the others were not completely absent. I even saw various types of animals in my short run, including a fiery bird up above that Sal told me was a Phoenix, which of course was awesome. Still, it wasn’t long before I was running on black stone with an absolutely ginormous lava pit ahead of me.

I was near the edge with nowhere else to run when Lita caught up hacking, coughing, sweating, and cursing as she glared at me and approached wielding her wrench. “Nowhere to *cough* run now, you little bitch. I don’t know where we *cough* are, or how we got here, but you must be the stupidest person alive to bring me to a place where you can’t use your magic.”

“Well, we’re on the Fire Plane, and I’m not that stupid since I have friends here and you can’t get back to the Material Plane without me.” I backed slowly away as much as I could with the lava so close since I wasn’t sure if protection from fire and heat included lava. I could see the uncertainty in her eyes even as I thought that I saw movement in the lava pit out of the corner of my eye. “That’s right, I’m the only one who can take you home, not that I’m going to.”

Lita stepped toward me after a coughing fit and glowered as she brandished her wrench. There was this moment where she seemed to realize that neither threatening or killing me was a good idea unless she wanted to look for a good spot to build a home. That passed quickly though as a cruel smile lit up her face. “I don’t see anyone here but us, not even your ‘Demon’ friend. She’s probably dead now. I don’t know how you got us here when you’re obviously a Snow Nymph, but you’re an idiot to bring me somewhere with no ice. Now, when I’m done with you, you’re gonna beg to take me home and let me sell you and your car.”

“Not gonna happen,” I told her stubbornly. “Yeah, I might be a Snow Nymph, but I’m way more than I appear to be and I’m just full of surprises.”

~Run, Child. we will need space,~ Sal gently prodded.

“The only thing that surprises me about you is that you can *cough* breathe and talk at the same time,” Lita taunted before taking a swing at me. I dove to the side and ran past her, away from the lava pool. My shoulder stung from where she had grazed me as I looked over it and saw her turning to follow me. That was when we were both caught staring at the massive shrieking form that broke the surface of the lava.

It was some kind of giant shark-squid-lizard thing and its head alone was a good fifteen feet tall. A massive tentacle wrapped around Lita to toss her in the air, where that massive big-eyed head filled with shark-like teeth snapped up the now screaming Mage like a piece of popcorn. Eww… she was crunchy. “See, full of surprises,” I muttered as I winced at the crunching sounds.

Then the beast turned its attention to me and I’ll admit that I was extremely relieved when Sal’s mental voice assured me, ~My host will not harm you, little Nymph. She may not be sentient like you but she can sense that you are bonded, and she knows that we do not harm one another.~

A breathed a sigh of relief and tried not to cough from the acrid air. ~Thank you, Sal. So, how does your host like the taste of Troll?~

~We have never tried it,~ Sal offered in an amused tone, ~but there is a first time for everything.~

~I’ll bring some back for you then,~ I offered with a smile. That smile sank though when I came to a realization. ~Melody should have been done with those guys by now. I know that I was running from Lita for at least ten minutes, probably twice that. I hope that she’s okay.~

~Worry not, little one. Time passes differently on different planes of existence. I have been told by others of my kind that it passes much faster here than on the Material Plane,~ Sal assured me.

I breathed a sigh of relief and tried not to cough as I breathed in the poor air of the Fire Plane. ~Oh, okay. I should go back and see if she needs help then, Sal. I’ll bring some Trolls for your host to snack on soon.~

With one focused thought, I was back inside Auto-Worx Parts ‘n Mods and taking a deep breath of Edmonton’s air. It was cool, crisp, and clean by comparison and I had arrived just in time to see Melody casually pulling a knife from her shoulder and returning it to its owner, hilt deep in his neck. There was only one Troll left standing now and he was making a break for it and running for all he was worth, that is until he ran face-first into the wall of ice that I grew in his path. Magic is fun, now if only it didn’t require so much concentration.

Not only did using magic use too much concentration but it was tiring as well. Melody made it look so easy when she controlled Fire, I hoped that I could get some proper lessons soon. The half-Demon didn’t seem tired at all, though her clothes were torn and bloodied, as she walked up and snapped the remaining Troll’s neck like a twig. Then she turned to smile at me as if this kind of thing happened every day and said, “Nice job there, Crystal. Where’s the bitch?”

Well, I suppose that it was her day job until recently but I still found myself a little uncomfortable with the thought of killing someone, though there was blood on my hands too. “I… ummm… took her out for a bite,” I joked weakly. “She won’t be bothering anyone again.”

Melody nodded grimly. “We’ll need to get rid of these bodies and scrub the scene before the PDA or the normie cops can show up.”

“I’ve got something arranged,” I said swallowing the bile that had suddenly taken up residence in my throat. “Sal will help us out. We just need to get them to him and his host on the Fire Plane.”

“Okay, let’s get to work then,” Melody replied, all business. “If you can take one of the bodies, I’ll follow with another pair, and then bring along the rest. When we get back I can get rid of any evidence in the shop while you check on the car.”

We were quiet as Melody gathered up the half-melted guns, and any other physical evidence of the fight, and placed them on the bodies to take with us to the Fire Plane. While she was doing that I got rid of any snow or ice that had been stained by blood and sent it into the closest sewer grate. When Melody was satisfied that we had everything, I took one of the bodies and focused on going to where I had left Sal. I was feeling the strain from everything that had happened as I appeared, dropped the body to the ground, and just about collapsed to my knees in exhaustion. I managed to stay standing though and backed off so that Sal’s host could snatch up the body and nom on it. Ugh, that sound was going to be in my nightmares for a while.

Melody showed up a moment later with a pair of bodies and, after a quick introduction to Sal, she tossed the bodies over for the huge beast to snatch up and snack on. She made the other two trips quickly and I stayed so that Sal’s host wouldn’t get the wrong idea and try to eat Melody too. By the time that all of the bodies were all disposed of she looked as wasted as I felt.

It seemed that we had gathered an audience as some of the animals were watching us from a distance, and I was fairly certain that most, if not all, were hosts. There were even some Salamanders in their physical forms watching us in keen interest until we left the Fire Plane behind. Several had even greeted me and come close enough to touch us before flying off again. “That was weird, were all of those creatures Salamander hosts? They seemed really interested in you, Crystal,” Mel inquired once we had returned to the Material Plane and she scanned the scene for any other evidence that might have been left behind.

“Yeah, I think so. It makes sense since I’m the first sentient host that they’ve met. They were interested in you too though. Probably because you’re not bonded and you were perfectly fine in all that heat. They seem to sense things about people, Ashe knew a lot of things about me and the others that she shouldn’t have, so maybe they had a reason to be interested,” I answered as I focused on checking for anything that I might have missed in the snow.

We finished just before the police showed up. At least it was normie cops and not Hunters from the PDA. We were able to stay hidden within the garage’s wards while they searched the area in response to noise complaints. They didn’t hang around for long and the wards kept them from thinking about the building we were in so I used that time to check on the Charger.

At least the bitch had installed the stereo and GPS properly and nothing seemed damaged. The MP3 player was what I had paid for too. It had three USB ports, FM radio, and if I had my phone plugged into it I could receive and make calls and talk hands-free. There was whatever stuff that she bought for Jocko and put in the trunk but I was going to worry about that later, it was paid for and I didn’t mind sticking the bill to the guy who conspired with Lita to steal my car.

Melody used that time to check the building’s security for any cameras, hidden or otherwise, and to make certain that we were never there. It seemed that there were cameras but they were the old-fashioned kind, not digital so Melody was able to find the tapes and erase them. My sales invoice on the computer was altered to show the same information as the most recent one for Jocko, and once Melody had carefully gotten rid of any fingerprints or other physical evidence that we had been there using stuff in that big purse of hers, she had me drive the car outside and wait down the block for her.

She scared the shit out of me when she knocked on the window looking like Lita, and I had to cover my mouth to keep from screaming before I unlocked the door and let her in. She returned to her human-looking form and smiled tiredly at me. “I replaced the tapes in the security feed and made it look like Lita was locking up for the night. Hopefully, nobody will notice the size difference between us on the tape.”

I nodded and looked at the clock display on my new radio/MP3 player. It was damn near ten o’clock, I was exhausted, and everything was starting to catch up to me as I drove with no real direction in mind. “Some date, huh?” I half-mumbled after a while as I tried to get the sound of Sal’s host eating Lita and the trolls out of my mind.

“Crystal, don’t feel bad about what we had to do,” Melody told me as she reached over and put a hand on my shoulder. “They deserved what they got. Lita was a criminal and they were all willing to steal your car and sell it, kill me, and sell you into slavery, so don’t you dare feel bad for them. They chose that end when they chose to do those things. You know damn well that if we didn’t take them out permanently that they would have just tried again. And they’ve probably done the same to other people, or worse, especially the Trolls.”

“How… how do you live with doing things like that?” I asked uncertainly as I stared at the road ahead.

The half-Demon squeezed my shoulder and sighed. “Look, Crystal. I know that I was all business when we were taking care of things, but if I let myself get too emotionally involved in the moment, that’s when mistakes happen. I live with myself because I don’t kill for the wrong reasons. I was doing my job and keeping you safe and even if I hadn’t been I would have done it because you’re important to me and I don’t want to see anyone trying to hurt you.”

“I… I know and I really appreciate that you stuck with me when I decided to go back for the car rather than getting to safety. I know that they would have just tried coming after me again and it was me or them but how can I…”

Melody cut me off firmly. “Stop it, Crystal. Those people deserved it, plain and simple. They were planning on doing bad things to us, they’ve obviously done them before, and they wouldn’t think twice about doing them again. By taking them out we made the streets a bit safer and prevented other people from getting hurt. They were exactly the type of Paranormals that the PDA sends Hunters after when they know about them to protect others, we just beat them to the punch. Don’t think about the people that we killed, think about the people that we saved. That’s what I do.”

I saw a Dairy Queen that was still open up ahead and sighed. “Do you know what I really need right now?”

“Sex?” Melody guessed, sniffing the air in the car.

She wasn’t wrong, and it probably would help me de-stress. “Okay, well that too, but that’s kind of obvious with me I guess, I’ve been horny since before we met, even with shit like tonight happening. If you were offering I’ll be happy to take you up on it though, after we get ice cream. I honestly think that it’s my favorite food now.”

“Well, it makes sense with you being a Snow Nymph and all,” she said with a smile as I turned into the Dairy Queen parking lot and found a spot. Then she looked dubiously at our clothes. “I don’t know if we should go inside, Crystal. My clothes are torn and bloodied and we both smell like we’ve been in a fire.”

I looked down and sighed as I realized that she was right. “Yeah, I guess so. I liked this outfit too, I’m probably gonna have to get it dry-cleaned after tonight. Let’s go through the drive-through then?”

“Sure, sounds good. I haven’t had ice cream in a really long time,” the half-Demon replied as she reached out to squeeze my hand.

I pulled out of the parking spot and drove us up to the order window where I ordered a chocolate extreme blizzard for myself and a strawberry-dipped cone for Melody. Then I pulled into another parking space in a nearby lot so we could eat our frozen treats. Melody was half-finished her cone by the time that I got us settled and was able to start eating my blizzard.

It was starting to get a bit melty, but I had left the window opened after leaving the drive-through and didn’t have the heat going so it didn’t melt all that much by the time I took that first mouthful. It was cold and creamy and sweet in all of the best ways, like a little piece of heaven in my mouth. Is it possible to orgasm from ice cream? This was going to require copious amounts of research and I looked forward to every moment of it.

I had finished my heavenly treat, Melody had run the trash to a nearby trash can, we had been talking for almost an hour, and I was trying to figure out how to get Melody to come to join me in my bedroom once we got home when I noticed her shivering. “Duh, Crystal. It’s like minus twenty-five, you’ve been eating ice cream, the window is still open, and you don’t have the heat on. Not everyone is immune to the cold,” I mentally chastised myself as I rolled up the window and turned the heater on.

As the inside of the car warmed up a bit I leaned over to put my arm around Melody and pull her close, sharing my body heat. “Sorry, I’m so stupid. I wasn’t thinking, you should have told me that you were cold. We’ll head home once the car warms up a bit,” I promised.

I wasn’t sure about her, but I was definitely getting warm as she put her arm around me. I wanted to be with her so badly right now and everything else that had happened that night seemed to just float away as we started kissing and working our way quickly to heavy petting. We were all over one another and I was kind of wishing that we were in the back seat, where it would be more comfortable as our hands began to explore beneath one another’s clothes.

I had been all too eager to remove those clothes completely and almost started to do so, when Melody whispered in a husky and quavering tone, “We’re…. still… in public. We should… get home.”

I nodded but I was reluctant to remove my hands from inside her shredded top as I had her bra pushed up and was caressing her breasts. They weren’t large no, but they were perky, perfectly suited to her size, and her nipples were as diamond-hard as mine were at the moment as we kissed again. Our tongues danced around one another in desperate need and the warmth between my legs was now an inferno, an aching need for more than we were doing.

“Mmm… sooo… hot,” Melody murmured when I finally broke our kiss. In my highly aroused state, I wasn’t entirely with it and only vaguely sensed the presence of a Salamander. Its mind was projecting happiness and excitement that seemed almost a part of what I was feeling right then as she, yes definitely a female, appeared practically in Melody’s lap. I had barely even registered her presence, much less the fact that she had dropped something, until the presence was gone again and Melody yelped in pain.

“Melody? Are you okay?” I asked in sudden concern, afraid that I might have been too rough with her. I didn’t think that I was that bad and she was half Demon, so she should be able to take a little of the rough stuff, right?

Okay, yeah, so my brain was a teensy bit lust-addled, can you really blame me? “Yeah, I’m f…fine,” Melody replied, her words a bit slurred as she looked back at me and seemed to have trouble keeping her eyes open. That was about when my brain decided to process that brief Salamander presence as I sensed a similar presence inside her. It was faint but definitely there, it felt like what I sensed from Carmen and Sorcha when they were nearby. “I’m a l’il tired,” the half-Demon managed to get out before passing out, her hands falling from where they had previously been generating such amazing sensations in my breasts.

“Just great,” I grumbled as I extricated our hands from each other’s tops and then smacked my forehead against the steering wheel. “This is now officially the worst date ever. I just wanna get laid, is that really so much to ask?”

Of course, just when things were finally getting good, something else had to happen. I was pretty sure that it was one of the Salamanders that had taken such an interest in Melody and me on the Fire Plane. It had become familiar enough with her presence while checking us out to target her when teleporting to the Material Plane carrying a new little bundle of joy. Why do they call infants that anyway? This one had just firmly hit the breaks on the joy that I was about to feel.

“Damn clam-jamming Salamander, couldn’t that have waited until we were finished?” I grumbled. Then, feeling that Cinder was awake I quickly corrected, “Not you Cinder, you know that you’re my sweet baby, it’s just been a very long night.” She hadn’t seemed to have taken offense, she might not have even realized what I was upset about, but it wouldn’t hurt to reassure her and send her some loving feelings to let her know that it was the situation I was upset with and not her.

Since I had a feeling that Melody wasn’t in any real danger and was just sleeping while the infant Salamander settled in and adapted her body for its presence, I tried to calm myself down and get myself thinking clearly before heading home. It took several minutes of deep breathing, thinking about just how badly the date had gone, and ignoring how good it had been oh-so-close to getting, but I managed to cool myself off enough to drive. Then I put the Charger in gear and headed for home feeling exhausted and disappointed, though of course, I had to use the GPS for that since I had absolutely no idea where I was.

The GPS didn’t let me down and I idly wondered if I should invest in an electronic friend for my other pressing need at some point as I entered the security code, pulled into the garage, and parked in my spot. Then, with a sigh, I turned off the engine and called along the Salamander network, ~Carmen, are you still awake?~

~Yeah, I was just about to go to bed. It’s almost midnight. You’re just getting back now? Well, it seems like somebody had a good date,~ she teased in response.

~Well, if you meet whoever that was, be sure to congratulate them because it wasn’t me. This has been the worst date ever,~ I griped. ~Please let your mom know that we’re back, she’s going to have to look over Melody. And I’m going to need someone to help bring her upstairs, I’m too damn tired to carry her after the night we’ve had.~

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 16 of A Cold Fey In Hell. The next Patreon chapter should hopefully be out later tonight. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 16: Lessons

Since everyone else who wasn’t working in the club at the moment was already asleep, it was Carmen, Jessica, and Carmen’s mother who came down in the elevator to help me with Melody. Together, the four of us were able to get Melody to her room where Dr. Diaz would look her over. On the way up I had given them the basics of our date and was admonished by Carmen’s mother for not using my new ability to travel to the fire plane and back to come home and get help.

I thought that we did okay, given the circumstances, since we were both still in one piece. Dr. Diaz had to pop that bubble though, just to make my crappy night complete as she told me, “You are still new to being a Nymph and need to learn to control your abilities and your magic, Crystal. You were lucky that you found a Salamander that could help you and that you weren’t attacked by something else on the Fire Plane while doing so. Also, Melody might be streetwise and tough and she may be half Demon but she has no formal combat training and she does have weaknesses. What if one of them had Paramace and thought to use it on her?”

She let me think about that as she ushered me and the others out of the room so she could remove Melody’s bloodstained and torn jeans and top and look her over. She promised to come and let me know what the prognosis was once she was done so Carmen, Jessica, and I went to our own rooms to get ready for bed. Or rather I went to my room and Jess followed me in.

I had just hung up my jacket and kicked off my boots and I was starting to strip off the rest of my clothes and kick them in the general direction of my clothes hamper when my sister sat beside me on the bed and said uncertainly, “Carmen’s mom had a point, Crystal. Melody still needs the training to be a proper bodyguard and you need to learn to control your magic. Tonight shows just why that’s so important. You’re not a guy anymore, you’re a Nymph now, and things like tonight are going to happen if people discover that. Did you really feed that bitch to some kind of lava Kraken?”

She was right, and I knew that she was only bringing it up because she was concerned about me. There was no point in responding to most of what she said since we both knew that she was right and that I knew that. “Yeah, that’s how I roll. I’m cold as ice, yo.” I said, giving the devil horns with my hand as I tried to make light of it. “Seriously, I knew I couldn’t take her in a fair fight so I used what Ice magic I could manage to make her think I meant to put up a fight and as a bit of distraction to get close enough to her so I could get her to where I could maybe get some reinforcements. Sal was a big help.”

“I’m kinda surprised that you thought of that, and I’m so glad you got home safe,” Jessica said as she wrapped me up in a hug.

“I’m not a fucking bimbo!” I snapped, pulling away from her. “I just get distracted easily when I’m not really focused on something,” I added lamely. It hurt to think that she thought of me the same way as everyone else.

“I never said that you were, Crystal,” she said calmly as she hugged me again. “I know you better than anyone. Yeah, it’s been hard for you, you’re still getting used to things and you’re often distracted by your need for sex and your clothes causing you anxiety, but you’re still one of the smartest people I know. What I meant was that I’ve never seen you be so devious before. For the record though, I’m proud of the way you handled it, I might make an actress out of you yet, Sis.”

“Don’t count on it, I’d still suck at remembering lines,” I retorted hugging her back tightly. Yup, she was still my sister and knew me better than anyone, even myself, and right now that was just so damn reassuring. “So how was your night, Sis? I hope it was better than mine.”

“Carmen and Sorcha kicked my butt at monopoly a few times and I’m not convinced that they weren’t conspiring with each other through that Salamander psychic network of yours. That would be so useful for doing the twin speak thing,” she said echoing my earlier thought. “Not sure that I’d want a tattoo like that though. If Mel has one now too then people at school are probably gonna think that you, Mel, and Carmen are part of some gang or something. I hope those school uniforms have long sleeves.”

“Yeah, I’m kinda worried about how we’re gonna explain that,” I agreed with a sigh as I extracted myself from her arms and flopped back on my bed. “So, did anything other than monopoly happen?”

“Well… umm... I…” Jessica stammered as she blushed and looked away.

I hadn’t really expected my question to garner a response quite like that and if she was flustered enough not to play it cool and act like everything was normal then this had to be something juicy. Maybe juicy enough to take my mind off my own problems. Her ears twitching away confirmed it so I moved in for the kill. “Come on, Sis, we’re sisters now and you’re supposed to share everything with me. I think that’s, like a rule or something.”

“Rose called,” my sister admitted, her face crimson. “She asked if I wanted to do something tomorrow night… something like a date.”

“So what’d you tell her?”

Jess was still bright red and looking down at her knees, ears twitching away as she more mumbled than spoke in reply. “I… uhh… kinda fibbed. I told her that I had plans with you and Mel tomorrow. I said that we had to get some Christmas shopping done since Friday is Christmas Eve and we only have a few days before then.”

“It wasn’t really a fib, Jess. We haven’t done any Christmas shopping for one another yet and I’d like to get some stuff for Mom, Rhissa, Carmen, and the others too, for accepting us the way that they have. So we can totally do that tomorrow after we get through our new lessons and stuff. I’m surprised though, I thought that you might be interested in Rose,” I said as I sat back up and took her hand in mine.

“Well, that’s the thing… you see she’s kinda very determined and impulsive and she sorta suggested that we make a double date of it; some shopping, dinner, and a movie, and I kinda agreed to it without asking you and Mel,” she replied as she cast a guilty look my way. “I think I’m interested in her, but I guess I’m not really sure. I’ve been so damn attracted to her since I found out that she’s a Púca too but until recently we hated each other’s guts. We’re both kinda competitive too and I’m not sure if we’ll get along or drive one another crazy. I figured that it would be safer finding out with you and Mel along with us.”

I squeezed her hand in mine. “It’s cool, Sis. I’m up for another date, it couldn’t possibly go worse than tonight did, right? Call her back tomorrow and find out where we need to pick her up.”

“You’re sure, Crystal?” my sister asked hopefully.

“Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think that Melody will have a problem with it either as long as we’re…” I was interrupted by the knock on my door and quickly padded over to answer it, clad only in my panties and bra. Dr. Diaz would understand, I am a Nymph and she had seen me in less. “How is she?” I asked as I opened the door and let her inside.

“If Melody sustained any serious injuries from your evening’s escapades then her regeneration has already healed them. She is running a slight fever and sleeping from the joining process, but it isn’t quite as bad as it was for Carmen and Sorcha and you were by far the worst off of the three of you during that process. I anticipate that she will pull through it with no real issues by the time that we all get up for breakfast in the morning,” Dr. Diaz reported before taking a long look at my shoulder. “That’s quite a bruise you have there, Crystal. Let me take a look. Did you get any other injuries?”

I sighed and sat down on the bed as I dutifully reported. “Lita clipped me pretty good with that big wrench of hers and I didn’t dodge fast enough I guess. It’s a bit tender but that’s the only hit I took.”

Carmen’s mother nodded and took a look at the bruise, probing it and the area around it a bit with her fingertips. I winced a little but while it was tender it didn’t really hurt now. “It’s not serious and I would think by looking at it that it was a day or more old. It looks like Cinder is helping you to heal considerably faster, so it should fade completely over the next few days. It’s not Demon regeneration but it’s still impressive. Would you like me to cast a healing spell on it to speed things along further?”

I didn’t answer verbally, just nodded my head self-consciously. I felt bad for wanting that, it was just a bruise after all. But to me, it was big and ugly and it was gnawing at my sense of vanity now that I was actually seeing it. Dr. Diaz shook her head and tried to cover a smile. “Why did I even ask? You’re as bad as Rhissa and your mother about this kind of thing. So self-conscious about a little bruise but none of you can help your nature can you? Sit still and let me work, dear. Between the magic, Cinder, and a good night’s rest you’ll be looking flawless again by the time you wake up.”

Relief flooded through me at her assurances and I could feel the warmth of her magic taking hold. I’d have to learn some healing magic if I could manage it since I was aligned to the Divine, then I wouldn’t have to feel guilty about going to Dr. Diaz or Carmen every time that I got a little scratch or bruise. “Thanks, Dr. Diaz,” I mumbled in embarrassment.

“You’re welcome, Crystal. As I said, you can’t help being who and what you are. Maybe your mother can teach you to take care of small injuries like those on your own,” she said, echoing my thoughts. “I suspect that she is quite adept at such things and has only been coming to me about them to maintain her ruse that she’s a River Nymph. Now, you two girls should get some sleep. From what I hear, the two of you and Melody have lessons starting tomorrow.”

Dr. Diaz left my room and, after a quick hug, Jess went to do the same. Before stepping out the door though my sister turned to say, “Don’t forget that you have lessons with me tomorrow too, first thing in the morning. I’ll be here at six.” Then she stepped outside and closed the door, leaving me to take off my undergarments, toss them in the direction of the hamper, and collapse into bed. It wasn’t long after I climbed between the silk sheets and turned off the light that I fell asleep, horny but too damn worn out from my night to do anything about it.

As promised, Jess showed up promptly at six am to put me through the first lesson of girl boot camp. I had barely finished slapping the alarm clock to shut it up when she knocked at my door. I made my way to the doorway to find my sister standing there in her bathrobe, far too cheerful for that time of the morning as she smiled at me and said, “C’mon, Sis, we have lots to do.”

She half-dragged me into the bathroom and showed me which of the products that we used were for what part of our morning regimen. It wasn’t just about what products were for what since I knew what shampoo, conditioner, and body wash were for. There was stuff like proper feminine hygiene, how to properly exfoliate without being too harsh on the skin, and preventing split ends and tangles, which was important for my long hair.

She also insisted on showering and going through my routine with me, which was really awkward, for me at least. Being naked and close to anyone else naked was practically guaranteed to make me horny, she was my sister, and it was cramped with two of us there in my shower. I couldn’t even use my new best friend, the showerhead, to attempt to relieve all of my pent-up lust since she was there with me.

At least she didn’t have to teach me to shave since Nymphs don’t grow body hair and she never gave herself any when she changed shape. She told me that we both dodged a bullet with that one since shaving and other forms of hair removal can be really rough on the skin. Not only that, but you risk nicking yourself, and just thinking about any kind of imperfection on my body made me worry and get all self-conscious. Just the thought of it had me checking to make sure that my bruise from the night before was fully healed and thankfully it was.

When we were out of the shower, Jessica had me only lightly towel my hair and pat rather than rub myself dry. Then we were on to combing my hair to make sure that it had no tangles and then using the blow-dryer to carefully dry it. Too much heat could damage my hair and too little made it take forever but she showed me how to do it properly. It took forever so thankfully we only had to do mine since Jess had worn a shower cap.

Once my hair was dry she had us massaging a moisturizing body lotion into our skin to make sure that it stayed soft and touchable. She had a separate special lotion for our faces that would help prevent acne or any blemishes. Neither of us would likely have to worry about that, but she said that it was best to take precautions if I wanted to always look my best.

That was where my Nymph vanity came in. Jessica made sure to tell me how and why everything that we were doing would make me look, smell, and feel my best and that was enough to keep me laser-focused on what she was teaching me. I had to be as pretty as possible and always look my best and she damn well knew it.

Soon, I was deodorized, my hair was brushed and styled, I had properly cared for my new piercings, and I was dressed in an outfit that Jess had chosen for me. She had gone to her own room to change and came back in a matching outfit, so it looked like we were doing the full-out twin thing this morning. She claimed that she chose my outfit because we didn’t have much time before breakfast and she would be teaching me about fashion and makeup later in the day. Sure that might have been part of it since we would barely make it to breakfast on time, but I think that she liked it when we matched and so did I sometimes.

Thankfully Melody was awake and waiting in the hall outside my room and, as I thought, she had a Salamander mark on her upper right arm that matched mine. I practically attacked her with a hug and kisses to show her just how much I had missed her. “You okay, Melody?” I asked when I finally came up for air and held her close.

“Better now, I’m starving though,” she admitted. “I can sort of guess what happened, I guess I got Salamandered when things were getting hot? Ashe was curious about the new mind that she felt and popped into my dreams. She figured it out after I told her about our date and the audience that we had on the Fire Plane, and she told me what I was in for with Ember. Sorry that I passed out on you just when things were getting hot.”

“It’s not your fault Melody, that Salamander surprised us both at the worst time and I know how hard it is on the body going through that whole bonding thing. Let’s go get you fed,” I said taking her hand and leading the way to the elevator. Then I gently probed the Salamander network. I recognized Ashe’s mind and those of Sorcha, Carmen, and their symbiotes and one unfamiliar mind that I felt seemed infant-like much like Cinder and her siblings. So it was the other mind that I asked, ~Ember, huh? I take it she’s female? She kind of feels female.~

“Yeah, she’s a girl. I know it sounds similar to Cinder but I…” Melody started to answer aloud before realizing that I had said the last part mentally. This earned her a curious look from Jess as we all stepped into the elevator. Her mind was full of confusion and uncertainty as she flushed and sent back, ~Okay, that’s weird, having someone in my head like that. I suppose that it could be useful if we need to communicate privately for some reason though.~

~I’m not really in your head,~ I replied thoughtfully. ~I think that it’s just communicating surface thoughts and emotions between those connected at the time and I don’t think that it can go any deeper than that, except maybe with our own symbiotes. Granted, even that can be embarrassing enough at times and some ground rules may be needed. Carmen caught me at the absolute worst time the first time that she tried it with me.~

Breakfast was the usual chaos of conversations and everyone talking about their plans for the day. It appeared that word about my seemingly cursed date with Melody and her resulting symbiosis had already made the rounds somehow because nobody seemed very happy when Jessica brought up the double date slash Christmas shopping excursion. It would seem that after last night they wanted to be more careful with my safety until Aunt Merry could get Melody and Jess trained in combat and I had a bit of magic training under my belt.

Needless to say, I was not happy when they wanted to have us put off the date and have us do our Christmas shopping during the day with Merriwynd and Annika the Amazon as a protection escort. Don’t get me wrong, I love Aunt Merry and Annika seemed cool and nice but they wanted to keep us locked in the proverbial tower here and only let us out under armed guard. I didn’t want to be a prisoner, no matter how well-intended.

“No way! We are not spending the next who knows how many months under lock and key! I get it, I probably fucked up last night but Melody and I are still here and the bad guys aren’t. There has got to be a better way than this. I might be perfectly happy finding something to do with Melody in my room for hours at a time but Jess isn’t like that and we need to spend time outside these walls sometimes,” I argued.

“Snowflake, you and I attract too much attention out there, even when we cover our ears to blend in but maybe we can allow the occasional outing if you have a chaperone with you,” my mother conceded. At my look of disgust, she quickly clarified. “Someone to watch you from a distance, I don’t want to ruin any fun you might have, but someone should be watching in case something comes up and you run into something that you can’t handle yourselves.”

Carmilla spoke up then. “I would be willing to take tonight off to watch them while they are on their outing, so long as they leave after dark. I have been feeling a bit trapped within these walls lately myself, and it would be nice to get out for a while. I can blend in well enough and I will follow from a distance and grab a bite to eat while they are having their dinner. If they run into anything that they cannot handle on their own, then I will intervene.”

I suddenly felt sorry for anyone who might try to mess with us tonight. From what information I had been able to gather from comments that she and the others in the club had made, Carmilla was centuries old and turned by the Night Queen herself. Don’t believe that Bram Stoker shit, there was no Dracula and half the things in that book and those that followed aren’t even close to true. The Night Queen was the first of her kind and if she had turned Carmilla and she really was that old, then that made her a terrifying creature to have as an enemy.

Hell, I was half-terrified of her and she was acting all maternal to me and the other ‘kids’. To be fair though, she was like that with practically everyone at the club. She considered us all family and she was much older than any of us so I guess that she felt that made her the mother of our group of Paranormal misfits. I was worried though since she and Melody kind of shared the same weakness with being aligned to Death. So once I had finished a mouthful of scrambled eggs I said, “Umm… Dr. Diaz made a good point last night about Melody. What if someone thinks to use Paramace.”

Several of the group laughed and Aunt Merry grinned. “It has happened before and probably will again. Carmilla has never hurt an innocent who pulled that, she is used to the fear that her kind generates and knows that they are just defending themselves, that is why she only feeds on willing people here at the club or people who prey on others. But if someone trying to hurt a member of her ‘nest’ tries that then they will just piss her off. And if they want an ancient Vampire and the original Night Princess pissed off at them when doing that, then they deserve what they will get.”

“Night Princess?” Jess asked after swallowing a mouthful of pancake and syrup.

“There are only three to whom the Night Queen has given her ‘gift’ in all the time that she has existed,” Carmilla offered. “All other Vampires are descended from one of those three. I was the first, and some idiots at the time thought that since I was the heir of the Night Queen that made me ‘the Night Princess’ and it stuck in Paranormal circles. The second of her ‘children’ was Vlad, and yes he was the inspiration for most modern Vampire legends among normies. He was of course called ‘the Night Prince’, he wasn’t exactly stable before she turned him, and he has only gotten worse in the centuries since. The last that she turned was fairly recent, only about a century and a half ago, and her name is Danica. She was a sweet enough girl when she lived but I fear that immortality has turned her somewhat eccentric.”

I think that her little lesson had quite a few of us at the table shocked, especially us ‘kids’. Carmen and Lou looked as stunned as me, Melody, and Jessica and so did Sukoha, who was the most recent arrival before the three of us. That possibly made Carmilla one of the scariest Paranormals on the planet. Even Demons knew better than to fuck with the Night Queen, and if Carmilla was the first Vampire she ever turned and was still around and growing in power that made her nearly as scary.

After breakfast, it was time for lessons. Aunt Merry would be allowing Jessica and Melody the rare pleasure of going to the second floor for their combat lessons. She and Annika had an exercise room and a training room on that floor past all of the rooms used for ‘entertainment’. The dancers often used the rooms to stay in shape and Merriwynd planned to use both in getting Melody trained as a bodyguard and Jessica in self-defense. Annika would also be joining them since the Amazon had offered to assist in their training as well.

That left me with the Dicken sisters. The three Succubae were eager to see what I was capable of and to start teaching me the ins and outs (if you’ll pardon the expression) of their profession, well the exotic dancer part of it anyway. Stella had whole choreographies planned out and I had to remind her that I didn’t really know how to dance yet. So, she began teaching me various moves that they used on stage and how to move seamlessly from one to another. Adora quickly added to that by showing me some of the sexier moves that she used to work up a crowd and told me how to read a crowd, when was the best time to slip off a piece of clothing, and how to get them eating out of the palm of my hand.

I felt clumsy and awkward but the trio assured me that I was doing very well for a beginner. We didn’t really have me actually take off any clothes, just mimic the actions since I was still technically a minor. That kind of sucked since I would have felt better getting out of my clothes and I knew that it wouldn’t have bothered them. They planned on having Lana make me an outfit to practice with though and some form-fitting underclothes that would be easy to practice in, which I discovered later would be particularly important for pole dancing.

Anita was eager to get me on the pole but she was worried that my clothes would get in the way and I’d fall on my head or something, so that would have to wait until the next day when I had those new underclothes to preserve my modesty, not that I actually had any. With that in mind, she just had me familiarize myself with using the pole to assist my movements and trying some very simple things to start off with. She did give me a demonstration though after stripping down to her underwear.

The way that she moved was amazing and I found myself mesmerized the whole time. At times it was like she was flying and at others, it was just perfect control of her thighs or a knee and ankle that kept her from falling. She was so graceful, precise, fluid, and sexy at the same time and for some reason, I found myself jealous of that. I really wanted to be able to do that too, to mesmerize people like she did and give gravity the finger, and I found myself thinking that maybe doing what they do for a living might not be so bad after all.

Before I knew it, two and a half hours had flown by. I was actually interested, having fun, and joking with the three Succubae, and some of those jokes were pretty raunchy. I really enjoyed the time with them and just like with Rhissa we seemed to have so much in common that I could see us all becoming close friends. They even offered advice on how to deal with my current sexual frustration, and not just suggesting what toys to use if I didn’t have a partner, but useful stuff too, stuff that would help me concentrate on things around me a bit better.

It was an hour before lunch and my Mom came to interrupt our little session. “Hey, girls. So, how is Crystal doing?”

“She’s a natural,” Stella said with a grin. “We weren’t able to do much practical stuff with her today but her movements are great and she’s really sexy and graceful, so she’ll take to it quickly once we get her started tomorrow, I think.”

Well, sexy and graceful are kind of the default for Nymphs when doing just about anything so it wasn’t like I had to work at that. Still, I kind of felt proud that they thought I was doing well so I admitted, “It’s more fun than I thought it would be.”

“Well, I’m glad that you’ve been having fun, my little snowflake. But I’m going to steal you away for a bit before lunch,” Mom said with a smile as she took my hand and led me to one of the booths to sit down. “You’ll have to learn Ice magic at school, Crystal, but I’m going to be teaching you Divine magic myself, and we’re starting right now.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 17 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 17: Divine

Almost the second that Mom and I had settled into our seats in the booth she began her lesson. “Crystal, being aligned to the Divine and learning to use its magic is unlike with any other element. Firstly, as primary elements both Death and the Divine are more far-reaching than other elements. All other elements have aspects of them both and that allows us limited control of those other elements, though it can be strenuous and difficult. For this reason, primary elements are also the most versatile elements, and the Divine encompasses light, life, and creation.”

I was familiar with the various elements and the theory behind primary, secondary, and tertiary elements so I merely nodded in agreement as she mentioned that part. “Dad always said that there was more to Divine magic-users than just heals and seals. I always thought that he was talking about the illusions and stuff,” I said as I thought about her words.

‘Yes, there is far more to us than that, Snowflake,” my mother said with a slight smile. “Yes, we can heal and cast seals, wards, and illusions. We can even subtly nudge the minds of others, but we can also create. Not just illusions, those are merely created by manipulating light and the minds of others, but actual physical creation, though that aspect of Divine magic is strenuous on the caster and difficult to master. Creation is also change though. For example, when we heal a wound we are using the creation aspect of the Divine as much as the life aspect.”

Mom paused a moment in her lecture, a pensive expression on her face before continuing to speak. “Your primary element is Ice, so since you’re aligned to both that and the Divine it would be easy for you to use the moisture in the air or nearby water to create Ice should you need it. It would be simple, but not really dangerous since Water is Ice if you remove the Fire aspect of the element. That’s not a bad use of change and because you are not creating something out of thin air, change can be easier than pure creation. In many ways though, it can also be far more dangerous and morally questionable.”

“How?” I asked uncertainly.

“Let us say that I take a quarter from my pocket or purse and I change it into a gold nugget of the same mass,” Mom suggested after a moment’s thought. “Now, I could do that many times and become very rich but such an influx of gold could hurt the economy if I tried to profit like that. Personal trinkets are one thing but trying to gain wealth that way would be immoral, not to mention silly since we can become wealthy far easier by offering our services casting wards, illusions, and such, which are far less strenuous on us. Good Divine magic-users are much sought after and well paid.”

I nodded as I followed her line of thought but said, “Okay, I’ll give you morally questionable. How is something like that dangerous though?”

“I change my hair color every morning to appear as if I am a River Nymph. I don’t actually change it though but merely use illusion to alter the way light reflects off it to make it appear aquamarine rather than gold. The reason that I do this is that creation magic is wild and often has a will of its own, especially when interacting with living creatures. It requires much effort to get only the change that you want and, if you’re not extremely careful, you could change a living creature in unexpected and dangerous ways. And once you’ve changed something, or someone, in that way it’s almost impossible to return them to the way that they were before,” she cautioned.

“But isn’t that basically what healing magic is?” I inquired.

My mother shook her head sadly. “Living things heal naturally, so we’re only speeding up a natural process or returning the body to a natural state through purification. Changing something with creation magic is against the natural flow of a person’s body. You may think that you’re helping them by removing an imperfection or giving them their dream look. That dream could become a nightmare though if you do not exercise exacting control over the changes that you are making in them. If you are only concentrating on the outside changes then the person could be changed inside in ways that you did not expect, ways that could kill them or change their lives forever. You traveled to the Fire Plane last night, right?”

I was very uncertain about ever attempting to use creation magic to change anything, ever, after that little lecture. Then I found myself confused by the sudden change in topic. “Umm… yeah?”

“You have a very strong connection to both Ice and the Divine, Crystal. I suspect that, if you tried, you could travel to the Frozen Plane or the Holy Plane as well,” Mom said her voice and expression both deadly serious. “I am asking that you please never attempt that. Each elemental plane has its own dangers but from what Grundle has told me those are two of the most dangerous. The Frozen Plane is home to the Frost Giants and Frostkin. The Frostkin are Ice elementals and can be friendly enough but the Frost Giants are violent and deadly. They though, pale in comparison to the dangers of the Holy Plane.”

At my look of disbelief, my mother continued her explanation. “Gnomes can travel to all of the planes, and many do, but Grundle said that none will dare travel to the Holy Plane for fear of the Mist. The Mist is everywhere on that plane, wild creation magic that changes anything that comes in contact with it. Only the Angels are immune because they are Divine elementals, all else is changed. People who come back from there are nothing like they once were, some are completely new species of Paranormals, and some don’t live long enough to find out. There is a balance in change; when something is created through change, what once was is destroyed in the process. That is the danger of using such magic without caution and exacting precision.”

To be honest, that kind of power scared me and it took a few minutes before I was able to say, “That sounds like it’s hard, and a huge responsibility.”

“All magic comes with responsibility, Snowflake,” my mother gently advised. “That being said, for those of us with a strong elemental alignment, magic can be deceptively easy to use. There are no silly incantations, hand waving, or rituals, only Witches and other unaligned require such things. Some of us, those with a strong alignment and natural talent for magic, can even use magic accidentally if not trained properly.”

I felt my cheeks burning as I mumbled, “I… uhh… kinda figured that out.”

To her credit, Mom managed to keep the smile twitching at the corners of her lips from forming completely. “Uncontrolled magic use can be dangerous, so I guess that I should start actually teaching you some control. Close your eyes and feel for the light inside you. Let that light fill you, don’t just use your element, become one with it.”

Until lunch was ready, my mother taught me the basics of using Divine magic. We didn’t get to any spells yet but she did promise to teach me a basic healing spell and an illusion to make my ears look more like those of a normie during our next lesson. This lesson was all about getting a feel for my Divine magic and the various aspects of it. She also advised me that, while on the surface it might seem easy to use magic since the intent was the important thing, spells are more powerful and effective the more well thought out they are. So, when casting it is always a good idea to know exactly what you want your spell to do and how it can be done within the limits of the aspects of one’s element.

She also taught me a bit about our ability as Muses to inspire others. Apparently, this is not an ability that we have any real active control over. When we spend a lot of time with people, especially if there are feelings of affection, trust, or love we sort of become synched to those people and that connection lets them tap into the Divine through creative thought and skills.

I was tired by the time that lunch was served, not to mention hungry. Dance lessons and magic training burn a lot of calories and I was eating for two. At least Melody and Jess looked as tired as I was. They were both a little sweaty and Melody’s scent was really turning me on as she and Jess sat to either side of me.

The talk at lunch was mostly dominated by our various instructors telling the others how our lessons had gone and figuring out when we would be going to pick up Rose for the double date and shopping trip. Carmilla said that the sun was due to set at roughly a quarter after four so we could leave then and she would follow us at a discrete distance on her motorbike. I had been wondering who the Kawasaki Ninja 650 in the garage belonged to, it was a nice-looking bike, sleek, and I heard that they performed well. Hers was a solid black, looked pretty sweet, and the standard tires had been changed for really high-quality Pirelli winter tires.

Since both Melody and Jessica had built up a good sweat before lunch they wanted to go shower it off once we were done eating. As horny as Melody’s scent had been making me all through lunch though, I decided against a shower of my own. Although some quality time with my handheld showerhead would have really hit the spot, I did have other things that I should do.

Jessica had been insistent that her girl boot camp would resume once she was less sweaty and since I had no idea how much she wanted to do that afternoon, I figured that now might be my only chance to get anything else done. The Dicken sisters hadn’t really pushed me to the point of perspiring so I figured that while they were off showering I should clear out whatever crap that Lita had put in the trunk of the Charger for her ‘client’. We would need the trunk space if we were going to be doing Christmas shopping.

Since Carmen and Sorcha were heading down to get Ashe some exercise I figured that we could all take the elevator down together. I was also thinking that it might also be a good idea to get off to a better start with Lou. With that in mind, I called out as he headed to the elevator, “Hey, Teen Wolf!” Then, once I was sure I had his attention, I said, “We’re heading down to the garage. They want to exercise Ashe but I need to check some things on the Charger after everything that happened last night. Do you want to come with?”

Lou was a bit wary when I first called him but then his eyes lit up and his mouth split in a grin once I had made my offer. “Really?” he asked cautiously.

“Yeah, I don’t need to do anything major, just empty the trunk and look for any damage on the body from the fight. I don’t think there was anything but it’s a good idea to check. I should probably check under the hood and make sure she didn’t do anything there too. I only really checked the interior last night,” I said with a shrug. “It’d go faster with two people.”

To say that he seemed eager would be the grossest of understatements but that wasn’t surprising since it had been easy to peg him as a car guy when we first met. He was a bit awkward though as he replied, “Uhh… thanks. That would be really cool.”

Did I intimidate him or something? I tried not to think about it. I was going to have a hard enough time focusing on getting anything done. I was horny as hell, I had been in clothes all morning, and every instinct that I had was screaming at me to take them off and get laid.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” I thought to myself as Carmen, Lou, Sorcha, and I descended to the garage level in the elevator. From the way that Lou was sniffing the air, and the sizable tent in his jeans, I was pretty sure that he was well aware of my current arousal and I was going to be alone with him. I hadn’t been alone with a male since before I Manifested and became a Nymph and my currently dripping groin felt achingly empty. He smelled good too; there was that certain musk that all men seem to have to various degrees but there was something more too, something like fur and earth that was almost primal, but then he was a werewolf.

I wanted Melody to be my first time, I really liked her and I felt a connection to her. I was hoping that we might have some sort of relationship, maybe something like my mom and Pandora shared. I was relatively certain that Melody understood that I was going to need a lot of sex, probably more than she could keep up with. In fact, I thought that she might have an easier time accepting the idea that I was probably going to end up being promiscuous than I was. Not yet though, not until I had been with Melody.

With that resolution in my mind, and a will to keep my thighs closed for the moment, I stepped out of the elevator and led the way to the Charger. Once I had taken my keys from my purse I opened the driver’s side door to pop the hood and then left my purse in the seat as we took a slow walk around the car to check for any dents or gouges in the paint. Thankfully neither of us spotted anything and soon we were looking under the hood.

There were no surprises under the hood either, so it seemed that Lita hadn’t installed anything but what I paid for yet. Lou seemed to be in heaven as he looked at everything under the hood, which was good since his mind was on the car and not doing anything with me, not that I could say the same. I really needed to get laid soon or I was going to explode. I was so distracted that I barely noticed Lou ask, “How did you get your hands on something like this, in such good condition?”

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself so that he didn’t notice my condition when I finally gave a slightly edited reply. “It was my Dad’s. I guess that it was the first car he ever owned and he and a friend fixed it up. Jess never really had an interest in cars but Dad taught me everything he knew; it was kind of our thing y’know? We worked on his car when it was needed and rebuilt his old motorbike for me together as sort of an early eighteenth birthday present. When he… died, Jess and I lost everything. Then Aunt Merry showed up and she knew about the car and the guy who was taking care of it for Dad, so she took us to get it so that I would have something of his. She said that he would have wanted me to have it.”

“You call Merriwynd ‘Aunt Merry’? I’d be afraid of her killing me if I tried that. Damn, that guy must have been sorry to let this baby out of his hands,” Lou said with a smile and a shake of his head.

“She and my dad go way back, they grew up as close as siblings, and she and Mom are close too. I called her that when I was little, I guess I just got back into the habit when I figured out who she was. Yeah, the guy didn’t want to let us get away with this beauty but like Aunt Merry says, ‘Fey always pay our debts,’ so we made sure that he got exactly what he deserved,” I said with a shrug before pulling myself out from under the hood. I was starting to get good at this selective truths thing.

Once Lou was clear of the hood I closed it and I made my way around to the back to open the trunk. There were several boxes inside and a pair of carefully bubble-wrapped nitrous oxide tanks. I just stared for a moment and would have asked what the hell that bitch Lita was planning on doing to my car, but I already knew damn well. The stuff in the trunk only confirmed it.

Besides the NOS tanks, there was a nitrous injection system kit, a police scanner, high-temperature brake pads and fluid, an underbody glow kit, a window tinting kit, and an interior LED lighting kit. Once we got a good look at all of it Lou whistled appreciatively. “Damn Crystal. We could really trick out your car with this stuff and, best of all, none of it would be difficult to do ourselves with two people.”

“I dunno, I’ve never tried installing a NOS injection system before, it could be tricky and NOS can be dangerous. Doing anything underneath the car would be a tight squeeze too,” I told the Werewolf uncertainly.

“We could go to my uncle’s shop to do the work,” Lou suggested. “He’d probably even help us so he knows that it’s done properly. He’s a normie, like my dad was, but he’s in the know about Paranormals and he knows cars. I hang out with him sometimes and he’s been teaching me to be a mechanic. I know that he’s done this kind of work for drag racers and stuff too and he never lets them leave the shop until he’s sure that they’re familiar with how the NOS system that he installed works and all the safety stuff that goes with it. He’ll want to make sure that you’re not thinking of using it for street racing though.”

I thought about it for a moment and shook my head. “Hell no, drag racing might be fun though. I’d never use NOS on anything but a straight line, I’d be too worried about losing control and damaging the Charger. Unless it was an emergency, like outrunning snatchers or someone trying to kill me, I don’t think that I would ever use NOS on city streets.”

Lou seemed pleased as he nodded. “If I were you, I’d probably pull out all the stops in that case too. There isn’t really drag racing specifically for Paranormals but Castrol Raceway has various types of racing if you’re interested in that. They allow teens and they try to keep everything as safe as possible. It’s all done at nights on weekends from April to October and you’d have to have a racing helmet but my uncle could let you know if the Charger would need any modifications for specific event types. He’s installed custom roll bar kits for other classic muscle cars that meet racing standards and still allow the rear seats to be usable, so you could probably talk to him about that for the safety factor too if we do install the NOS kit.”

“That actually sounds like a good idea. I wouldn’t mind a permanent roll bar that I don’t have to disassemble and remove to get passengers in the rear seats, it would be safer all around if there’s an accident or something. When do you think that he could get us in to do the work? Installing all of this and a custom roll bar or cage is going to be more than just an hour or two of work,” I said as I considered the boxes in the trunk.

“I’ll give him a call when we’re done here. Maybe he can get us in on Sunday since it’s Boxing Day and the shop will be closed anyway. He might be able to get the roll bar pieces ordered in by then too, he should be able to order a custom roll bar kit based on the model of the car. He knows a few companies that make and ship them but It could cost at least a few hundred bucks,” the Werewolf told me.

“I’ve got plenty of money to cover it and pay your uncle for the time in his shop too,” I replied. “Now let’s get these boxes out of here and the NOS canisters somewhere safe so I have room for bags. Jess is probably waiting for me by now to do some sister stuff before we go on our date tonight.”

With Lou’s help, I managed to put all of the stuff in the trunk into an unused corner of the parking garage where it wouldn’t be disturbed until we needed it. He was talking excitedly about the mods and it was nice to have someone with a similar interest in cars to talk to. We got off to a bit of a rocky start but I thought that we might just become good friends. Sure, he was probably going to say stupid things sometimes, but I just had to keep in mind that Lou doesn’t always think about the words before they leave his mouth. Having to think about what I say before I speak made me realize that I was really no prize in that department either, even if I was working on it.

As we rode the elevator back upstairs I sensed that Cinder was waking up so I gave her some mental snuggles. ~Good afternoon Cinder, did my sweet baby have a good nap?~ The only real response that I received was the content bubbling of her infant thoughts and the feelings of love and affection that washed over me and wrapped around my mind like a warm blanket.

I was so lost in that that I almost missed it when Lou said, “Hey, Crystal. I’m sorry for not thinking and being such a jerk when we first met. Mom and Carmen both keep telling me that I need to work on the brain-to-mouth thing. Thanks for being cool about it and letting me help with the car.”

“It’s all cool,” I said, accepting his apology. “I get the same problem sometimes, and I’m very sorry about freezing your underwear. I was angry and I can’t really control my magic yet, especially when I’m upset. It’ll be nice to have a friend that I can talk to about car stuff.”

As I was expecting, Jess was in her bathrobe and awaiting me outside of my room when I got there. “I saw that you were trying to make nice with Lou, how’d that go?” she asked as I approached.

I didn’t answer until I had opened my door and we were both ensconced safely inside with the door closed behind us. “Well, other than being horny and wanting to rip my clothes off and fuck him senseless almost the entire time, it went well. We took a good look over the Charger and the stuff that Lita had in the trunk, we talked about cars, he apologized for being an ass, and I apologized for nearly freezing his balls off. He might help me install those mods that Lita had in the trunk on the Charger.”

“That’s good, now I won’t have to listen to you talk about cars all the time,” my sister teased, “though I suppose now you’re more focused on other things. What did that bitch put in the trunk anyway?”

“It looks like she was going to make the Charger all Fast and Furious for that asshole who was paying her. There are even NOS canisters and an injection kit. That might be cool if I decide to take up racing as a hobby, I guess there’s a track here that does various types of racing and the season starts in April,” I informed her.

“I dunno, Sis. Isn’t racing dangerous? After what happened with Dad in the hospital…” Jessica said, looking worried as her voice trailed off.

I put my arms around her, hugging her tightly. “I’d be careful and I’d probably only do drag racing to be safer. Lou and I were talking about getting custom roll bars or a roll cage just in case for safety and I’d probably want my own pit crew and medical person in case of accidents. I’d want Dr. Diaz there or at least on the speed dial of my pit crew. It’s all just academic right now and I’ll do my research and prepare to make it as safe as possible. I may not even have time if I’m working nights by the time the season starts.”

Jessica nodded in relief but arched her eyebrow at my last comment as she broke our embrace. “Working? As in…”

“I’m thinking about it,” I admitted. “The Dicken sisters made it seem fun and after what I saw today I’m actually eager to learn, especially the pole dancing part. Anita was amazing and when I was watching her it was like, ‘I want to be able to do that.’ So, maybe when you start going for your bartending training, I’ll ask about maybe giving it a try. They’re right about the job having a lot of good points for people like us.”

“If it’s going to make you happy then I say you should go for it, Sis. You know that I’ll support you no matter what you do, as long as you do your best to do it safely.” This time, she hugged me before adding, “Now let’s talk fashion. We need to get you all dressed up for the date anyway and then we’ll see how much you remember of that makeup lesson that Heather gave you.”

For the next hour and a half, Jessica pounded into my brain the intricacies of teen girl fashion. The types of clothes, what should be worn with what, a million different color names, and various looks that would work for our face and body type and coloring. I was again laser-focused on the lesson because Jessica made sure to pander to my vanity and tell me how and why all of these looks would either not work for me or make me look my best.

Once she had driven as much knowledge into me as she could during that time she got me into a sleeveless crimson and black skater dress that she thought would be cute and sexy with my leather jacket and knee-high boots. It had black lace along the neckline and hem, showed a lot of cleavage, and it barely went down to the middle of my thighs but I felt sexy in it. The strapless bra and panties were crimson as well and very sexy, though they would have been more so if I wasn’t wearing a panty liner in the panties to keep from soaking them.

Then, now that I was properly attired, Jessica had me try and put on my own makeup. I remembered how Heather had done it, but it takes a gentle and steady hand to do it right. It took me nearly a dozen tries and makeup removal wipes to get my face looking like Heather had. And then Jessica had to pop my balloon of elation by making me wipe it off again so she could teach me an evening look that would be more appropriate for our double date. It only took me eight attempts to finally get that one mastered to the point where my sister thought that I was presentable for the evening.

By the time I was finished, Jessica barely had twenty minutes to rush to her room to get ready. She was much more experienced with clothes and makeup than me though and it helped that she already had her clothes for the evening set out. She was going with a similar dress to my own in baby pink but with a more modest hem and neckline. I was satisfied that both the dress and the black wool overcoat she wore over top of it would keep her cottontail safely hidden. To complete the outfit, she was wearing a poofy black knit cap that would hide her ears well and a pair of fleece-lined black ankle boots with a modest heel.

Melody was waiting for us in the common room chatting with Carmen and Sorcha. I was pretty sure that they were talking about the strangeness of getting used to having an infant Salamander sharing one’s body and mind but they stopped to look up as we approached and Carmen gave a wolf whistle. “Looking good girls! Lou already locked himself up for the night, Crystal, but he said that he’ll talk to you tomorrow about taking the car into his uncle’s shop.”

I nodded distractedly as I stared at Melody. She was still in the usual Chinese girl form that resembled her natural form, but it wasn’t that which was making me stare. I was used to her just wearing jeans and t-shirts but at the moment she was wearing a sexy little black dress and a leather jacket and boots similar to my own. I thought that she might be wearing makeup too, though that could have been shapeshifting with her. Still, she had made the effort and that meant a lot to me. Also, she looked so damn sexy.

Melody was staring at me as much as I was at her. Finally, she managed to say, “Umm… Carmilla said she’d be waiting for us in the garage. I guess that we should get going if we’re going to be on time to pick up Rose and get some shopping in before dinner.” She kissed me on the cheek to not mess up my makeup and then looped her arm in my own to lead me to the elevator. I was so smitten that I was barely aware of my sister walking alongside us.

“Have fun girls, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Carmen teased as the elevator doors closed.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 18 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Sorry it's late this week but I had a hectic few days and no time to post. A word of warning, there is a referenced assault near the end of the chapter. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 18: Double Date

Once we were all in the Charger and out of the garage I began following the directions given to me by the GPS toward the house where Rose was currently living with her Aunt Sandra’s family. A quick glance in the rearview mirror showed Carmilla following on her Ninja, keeping the Charger in sight. Carmilla was good, she kept us in sight without staying right on our tail so we didn’t feel like we were being watched over like small children.

The GPS led us out of the river valley westward until we entered the Glenwood area and a nice average-looking suburban home with a white minivan in the driveway. “Are you sure this is the place, Jess?” I asked as I pulled up to the curb in front of the house.

“This is the address she gave me, Sis. Why do you ask?” my sister asked, biting her lip as she glanced nervously from the house and then back to me.

Yeah, she had that nervous look on her face and I could see her ears twitching under the knit cap she was wearing to hide them. She needed to calm down and relax about this so we could have some fun. I needed to inject a bit of humor to help with that so I shrugged and replied with a purposeful smirk, “I dunno, I guess I was just expecting something more murdery? I mean, she was a murder-bunny in a slasher flick and at the shoe store, she attacked you and tried to suck your tongue and lungs out. Though I guess this works though, in a Nightmare on Elm Street kinda way. I’m kinda glad we’re not here for a sleepover, you know how those movies always work out.”

“Hey! Rose isn’t that bad! Yeah, I kinda hated her when she was the competition, but we’ve been texting and she seems nice. She’s just a bit impulsive and the murder-bunny role was acting!” she shot back in defense of Rose.

“I know, Jess, so stop acting like you’re going to your execution instead of a date,” I told her, reaching over to take her hand in mine and give it a gentle squeeze. “Being attracted to girls isn’t a big thing unless you make it one, I’ve been attracted to them since I hit adolescence and I still am.”

“You’re attracted to anyone with a pulse, Babe,” Melody teased from the back seat.

My heart fluttered rapidly, threatening to fly from my chest as Melody called me ‘Babe’. “Does that mean we’re official? Do I want to be official? Maybe it was just a slip of the tongue?” I took a deep breath to stop myself from getting all frantic over a simple word, even if it did make me feel indescribably giddy for some reason. No, this was about helping Jess to get her mojo, I had plenty of my own already.

I tried not to let my excitement and embarrassment show, right now I had to be the wise and supportive bro… sister. So, with a smile that was meant to look a lot more at ease than I actually felt, I shrugged and said, “Yeah, and that’s not a big thing either. I may still be getting used to guys being hot but there’s nothing wrong with that. Who we love is nobody’s business but our own. To the people who really care about you, it won’t matter, and anyone who does take issue with that has no say in how you live your life anyway and can go fuck themselves. Who we’re attracted to and who we love, it’s part of who we are, and we shouldn’t have to change ourselves or pretend to be someone else for anyone.”

Melody nodded her agreement. “She’s right, you have the right to be yourself and to be with whoever makes you happy, Jess. If that’s Rose, then we’ll be happy for you both. For the record, I think you’d make a cute couple.”

“Thanks, girls,” Jessica replied, her cheeks bright red and her ears still twitching under her cap. “It’s… uh… not only the dating a girl thing though, I’ve never dated anyone.”

I reached over to wrap my arms around her, holding her tight for a moment before letting her go and giving her a steady look. “Sis, just relax and let’s try to have some fun and try to get to know her better, okay? Dates aren’t that different than hanging out, at least from my experience. My experience being last night, of course. Is nearly getting killed and/or kidnapped and almost having your car stolen normal for a date, Melody? If it is I might have to re-think this whole thing,” I turned to tease the half-Demon in the back seat.

“I don’t think that’s a normal thing for dates, not that I have much experience either. I think it’s more of a normal thing for being you, you’re a trouble magnet, Babe,” Melody teased right back.

“Oooh! She said it again! Calm down, Crystal, be cool. You’re a Snow Nymph so cool should come naturally.” I attempted to keep myself from getting too excited but I could feel the goofy smile on my face. Still, I managed to reply, “That’s why I have you to protect me. Now let’s get this date going.”

I was still trying to hide my grin as my sister made her way to the front door to ring the doorbell and Melody moved to the front seat so the Púca pair could ‘get cozy’ in the back seat. After a moment the pair approached the car, Rose wearing a thick black winter jacket and calf-length fleece-lined boots and gloves. It looked like she was going for a seasonal look underneath her outerwear with a knee-length red sweater dress and emerald leggings. Atop her head, she wore what looked like an oversized Santa hat that hid her ears.

Once they were settled in and buckled up I put the Charger in gear while offering a, “Hey, Rose. How goes?”

“Hey… umm… Crystal. I’m okay, except for a case of GSS,” she joked weakly.

A glance in the rearview mirror showed that Rose looked just as nervous as Jess. Jeeze, we needed to get those two to loosen up and enjoy themselves. They obviously liked one another and were just worried about doing something to make one another uncomfortable. Bunnies, what can you do? “GSS?” I prodded gently, trying to get her talking.

“Uhh… Glass Slipper Syndrome. Y’know, like, I have to be home by midnight,” the ebony-haired Puca replied self-consciously.

Jess let out a bit of a giggle-snort at that. “Well, at least your family didn’t insist on a chaperone, like ours. We have, like, literally one of the scariest Paranormals on the planet following us to make sure we stay safe. She’s trying to give us space and privacy though.”

“Huh?” Rose asked, her nervousness momentarily replaced with confusion.

“Turn around and you’ll see a motorcycle following us just far enough to keep us within sight and be close enough to react if anything happens. That’s the Night Princess,” Melody informed the new addition to our little crew.

“No way!” Rose half-shouted, her eyes wide. She swung around in her seat the best that her seatbelt would allow, looking behind us. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“No joke,” I told her seriously. “That’s really her following us, she lives and works at the club where we live. The chaperone thing is kind of my fault, Melody is supposed to be my bodyguard, which is useful since we’re trying the whole dating thing, but I guess that I make a tempting kidnapping target and our date last night was… eventful. So our overprotective new family thought we needed a bit more protection when we go out until Melody is fully trained. Carmilla volunteered because she’s like super-protective of everyone living at the club, especially us ‘kids’.”

“What the hell did you do on your date to get that kind of reaction?” Rose sputtered, her eyes watching me and Melody in the front seats now.

“We tried to have a normal date but I kinda stand out, so I guess Jess will too if she keeps doing the twin thing with me,” I said with a sigh. “Honestly though, a metal mage figured out that I was a Nymph and told a group of trolls so they could kidnap and sell me to the highest bidder and so she could jack my car and sell it. There was fighting, a brief trip to the Fire Plane, and none of them will be bothering us again. Let’s just say that I now know a ginormous lava Kraken thingy that’s only too happy to help me dispose of any inconvenient bodies.”

I couldn’t help but smirk a bit as I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw Rose watching me wide-eyed. “I… really hope that you’re joking.”

“Nope, it’s all true. She didn’t even tell you all of the highlights,” Melody said with a smirk of her own. “She completely skipped the part where I ended up bonded to a fire elemental like hers and passed out just as we started making out.”

“Don’t worry Rose, as long as you can keep our secrets and treat my sister right I don’t have any problems with you. I think we could all be friends if nothing else, and I protect my friends,” I told her. I did send an uncertain query to Melody along the Salamander network though. ~Are you sure it was a good idea to tell her about the Salamander thing?~

~If she hangs out with us enough she’s going to find out sooner or later. She already knows about your real past and it’s probably better that she knows and can help with keeping everything quiet than get blindsided later, make a big deal of it then, and possibly reveal everything to those who we’d rather not know in the process,~ the half-Demon pointed out.

Melody had made a good point so we ended up telling Rose about the Salamander situation as we drove to West Edmonton Mall for our shopping. I think that Jess, Melody, and I all had ideas for what to get one another but Mom, Aunt Merry, and the others at the club we had no idea about. We did want to get everyone a little something to show our appreciation for how kind they had been to us and how they had treated us like family since we had arrived but we didn’t really know any of them very well yet.

“I suppose that Aunt Merry would be happy with something stabby, or otherwise deadly,” I muttered as we pulled into the parking lot, our conversation having gotten us nowhere.

“Well if you just want something nice that they’ll appreciate and enjoy you could get all of the women vouchers for a spa day. Get them the works, it might be a little pricey if you were to pay for it on your own, but if all three of you chipped in it wouldn’t be too expensive,” Rose suggested pensively.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Jess agreed. “Carmen would probably like something like that too. So we’d just need to figure out something for the guys and Sorcha. Do you know a place that would work?”

The other Púca nodded eagerly. “Aunt Sandra took me for a spa day when I first got here and it was really nice, they do massage and everything. My cousin Lisa and some friends of hers opened the place during the summer after going to school for that kind of stuff. They didn’t like that there weren’t any places like that specifically for Paranormals in the area. Lisa said that we need to relax more than anyone. We could swing by and find out how much it would cost, though it’s all the way up on the third floor of the mall.”

“I don’t mind us going a bit out of the way for nice gifts for the others,” I offered. “I was thinking of getting Sorcha a stuffed animal or something but maybe we can find something nice for Lou and the other guys that we can chip in on too.”

The shopping went well since we had most of the gifts covered by the spa vouchers. It was actually pretty reasonably priced, especially with the three of us chipping in. We also found a decent tool kit that I thought that Lou would like since he was so into cars. The other guys were a bit harder to shop for since we didn’t know Derek, Jack, or Brock very well. We ended up getting them each one of those nice gift boxes with the cologne and grooming stuff.

For Sorcha, we searched through the toy section and Jess wanted to get her some Barbie dolls but we found these Monster High dolls that we thought she would like instead. It sort of made sense with all three of us being Paranormals that were going to be starting at a high school with others like us after Christmas. As for one another, it was difficult to get enough privacy to buy anything for each other since we all had to stick together, even though I did spy Carmilla a few times ‘shopping’ and watching us. We were probably going to have to save buying one another’s gifts for a different day when I could get someone else to play bodyguard while I shopped.

One good thing was that Rose and Jessica seemed to relax more and more as we walked the mall and did our shopping. So things weren’t quite so tense by the time that we made our way to the massive food court for dinner. In fact, Jessica and Rose had relaxed to the point where they were talking about acting and their other interests.

It seemed that while Rose didn’t want to do acting anymore since she was out from under her mother’s thumb, she was very interested in makeup artistry and prosthetics and stuff in the movie industry. I could kind of understand why and it was amusing to discover that they were both considering going to Concordia University after graduating high school. They were having a very animated conversation about it when we finally all sat down at a table.

The plan for our date had been for dinner and a movie and luckily we could get both at the supermall and, as a bonus, we could all get whatever we wanted for dinner. So while the bunny girls talked excitedly amongst themselves, Melody and I went to find something to eat. “How about Chinese?” Melody asked as we looked around.

“We’ll have to get like double the portions, remember, we’re both eating for two now,” I replied as I considered it. I hadn’t had Chinese in a while. “We’ll probably be hungry again in like an hour though, but I guess that means we’ll have room for popcorn and stuff at the theatre. Oh! They have a Dairy Queen! I want ice cream for dessert!”

“Of course you do,” Melody replied with a giggle. “Okay Chinese for dinner, ice cream for dessert, does that sound fair, Babe?”

I could feel myself flushing and my heartbeat quickened as she used the B-word for me again. Wow, it was hot. I was so glad I wore a panty liner too because right now I was dripping with need for her and it felt like the void between my legs that felt so achingly empty at the moment had a pulse all its own. Damn, I really needed to get in front of this thing. Oh, my Goddess. I was so excited, nervous, and afraid all at the same time by the time I found my voice again. “Um… yeah, that sounds great. You… umm… keep calling me ‘Babe’. So… are we, like, a thing? Y’know, a couple-thing?”

She smiled, turned me toward her, and swallowed a lump in her throat before replying. “Do you want us to be? I do, I mean, I really like you, Crystal. It’s not just physical attraction either. You’re a wonderful, beautiful person, and you’ve made me weak in the knees since I first saw you as your new self. I’d like to give this a try.”

“I like you too and I’d love to be your girlfriend, but…” I trailed off with a sigh, my heart being squeezed as I realized that I needed to be upfront about things. l stepped forward, leaning against her and putting my head on her shoulder to whisper softly in her ear. “But you know what I am. You know what that means. I want sex all the time, and you said it yourself, I’m attracted to anyone with a pulse. I don’t know if I have the self-control to hold myself back from giving in to those urges all the time. The past week has been driving me mad, it hasn’t even been a full week yet.”

“Okay, so you’re not built for a monogamous relationship, but I know that going in. It doesn’t mean we can’t have something special between us. Just look at your mother and Pandora, they’re both like you, and part of their job is having sex with other people, and yet they’re obviously in love and they make their relationship work. There’s no reason why we couldn’t do the same… if you’re interested,” she told me gently, reaching up to cup my chin in her hand.

Gently she raised my face so that I was looking into her eyes, and the look there made my breath catch in my throat and my loins flare with the heat of my desire for her. Goddess, I was so interested, in giving this thing a try and in getting her to my bed as soon as possible so that my first time would be with her. “Yeah,” I replied breathily, my breathing heavy and my voice husky with need for her. “I’d like that… Wait they have hotels in this mall, maybe we should just skip the movie and…”

She put a finger to my lips to halt my words and shook her head but I barely noticed that in the haze of desire that currently gripped me. My hands were all over, shaking a bit as they caressed her back and ran down her sides, taking in the muscles beneath her dress and soft skin and the tapering of her waist, and my body was pressed so close to hers that I could feel her heartbeat against my chest. I needed her so badly right now, even more than I needed to get my clothes off. Why was I wearing those anyway? They were so uncomfortable and I was so damn hot right now. Yeah, those needed to come off.

“No, Crystal,” Melody said firmly and clearly, somehow managing to cut through the fog of my lust-addled mind. “We can wait until we get home, I’ll make sure it’s worth the wait. We’re in public right now so you need to control yourself, Babe. We’re here for your sister right now and I know you well enough to know that you wouldn’t want to bail on her. Let’s get our dinner and our ice cream first then go to the movie.”

Oh yeah, food. Because Cinder and I were both hungry. I felt a brief stab of guilt that I had lost control of myself enough to even consider abandoning my sister to have sex after promising to be there for her on this date. It was enough to help me get control of myself again, and a few deep shuddering breaths helped even more. “Okay, I’m good. Thanks, Melody, I kind of lost it for a minute there. Food and ice cream would be good.”

We went to one of the Chinese places in the food court, where Melody had four plates loaded up with a variety of dishes and surprised me by speaking with the counter attendant and ordering for us both in Chinese. “Did you just order in Mandarin?” I asked in wonder.

“Cantonese actually,” she gently corrected as we walked back to the table. “When I was two I was fostered out to a family in Chinatown because they thought I’d fit in, being Chinese myself. Since I was just learning to talk anyway, they made sure to teach me to speak, read, and write in both English and Cantonese. I stayed with them until I was seven so I’m bilingual and I still try to practice and improve as much as I can, I feel like I owe it to them. I loved the Chans, they almost adopted me but they couldn’t really look after me after they found out about Mo… Mrs. Chan’s Cancer, so I was sent to live with another family. I never really fit anywhere else though, so I never lasted more than a year at any one home until I Manifested and ran away.”

As much as I felt bad for bringing up what was possibly a painful memory for her, it was nice to learn something more about her childhood other than what she had glossed over on our last date the night before. I wanted to learn everything about her, the good and the bad. I found myself smiling as we returned to the table, where Jessica and Rose were deciding what they wanted to eat.

Rose stared at our trays, each with two heaping plates and a large drink. “How can you possibly eat that much?”

I shrugged and made sure that my voice was just low enough to carry to them across the table as I informed her, “Bonding with a Salamander changes our physiology a bit, I guess. We’re kind of eating for two now and they need a lot of energy.”

“That’s so weird, kinda cool though. We’ll be right back, there’s a pizza place here that makes an awesome vegetarian pizza.” She stood up and seemed to take Jessica’s hand in her own without even thinking about it, making my sister blush. They were so cute together and it seemed that they were over their rivalry so I found myself watching them as they walked off and Melody and I started to eat.

Throughout dinner, we had to fend off several guys who seemed very interested in me and Jess particularly, but they didn’t seem dangerous. They were just horny normies and most of them backed off when we made it clear that we weren’t interested. One guy was a bit too insistent for my comfort but he was dealt with when Carmilla sauntered up to the table just oozing sex appeal and invited him to ‘share a meal’ with her somewhere more private. I was guessing that he was going to be the meal, but he likely wouldn’t remember that part.

The ice cream at least dealt with one of my cravings and it was nice snuggling up with Melody in the theatre. Honestly, I don’t even remember what the movie was since we kind of spent the whole time making out. It was difficult keeping it just to that with as horny as I was. I mean it was dark in the theatre and it wasn’t like I had any modesty or even cared who was watching. I almost tried to get undressed twice before Melody had to get me to calm down and remind me that the theatre wasn’t the place for sex.

Don’t ask Jess what the movie was either because I’m pretty sure that Rose took charge and they were sucking face the entire time too. Their clothes were certainly disheveled enough when we left the theatre. It was the first time that I had seen Jess truly happy and not holding anything back since Dad died and that came as a huge relief to me. I thought that she and Rose just might be good for one another, and that made me so happy for her.

It was after we had dropped Rose off at home and were making our way back to the club when things went off the rails. We were driving along a quiet street and passing an alley when I heard screaming. I didn’t hesitate for a second, slamming on the brakes and bringing the Charger to a stop right there in the middle of the street. Jessica looked at me uncertainly from the back seat. “Sis, this isn’t our…” she started to say.

She didn’t believe what she was saying for a minute, she was just trying to keep us both safe and we both knew it. Yeah, I was eager to get home and have a night of hopefully amazing sex with Melody but if I did that when someone was in trouble and I could help, I would never forgive myself. “Someone’s in trouble and we’re here, so I’m making it our business,” I said. “It’s probably just normies so Melody can probably handle them on her own.”

I opened my door but Melody and Jess still seemed doubtful. Those doubts were erased though as we heard a male voice shout, “Let’s just kill it and get the fuck out of here, I think I saw a car pass!”

Melody was out the door and toward the alley before the voice even finished the sentence and by the time I had gotten out and shut my door, Carmilla had pulled up to a stop behind us and leaped off her motorcycle to follow Melody. When Jess and I got to the alley four teenage guys were already on the ground, either dead or unconscious and the Vampire and the half-Demon were dealing with the last of the six. Melody was laying the beat down on one while Carmilla held one by the throat one-handed, his feet dangling nearly a foot off the ground before she casually tossed him aside to slam into the wall of the alley and slide down to the ground as unconscious as his friends.

“Human filth,” the Vampire spat with distaste before turning to me. “I will ensure that they do not remember this incident. Check on the victim, we may need to call 9-1-1.”

I nodded and made my way over to the slumped form of what appeared to be a girl in a mid-thigh length skirt, warm leggings, and a thick jacket with a feminine cut. She was in bad shape, her face was a mass of bruising and she had blood was pooling around her, it looked like she had been stabbed several times in the midsection. Her breathing was erratic and came out in raspy whimpers that didn’t sound good at all. There was no way she was going to last until an ambulance got there, even if I could stop the bleeding.

I felt for the light of the Divine within me as I pushed up her jacket and the t-shirt underneath to try and make skin-to-skin contact, pressing my hands to the worst of the knife wounds to try to staunch the bleeding. I needed to heal her, to make her whole again. Why did those guys attack her? Her face was so bloody and swollen already that it was hard to make out her features. They had called her ‘it’, was she some type of Paranormal perhaps? So many thoughts ran through my head as I frantically called upon the light and shoved it into her, willing her to live.

I was only vaguely aware of the alley turning bright as daylight for the few minutes that I felt my power rip through me and into the girl. When it had had its way and I had half-collapsed atop her form she was breathing steadily once more. I pulled away wearily, looking down at her as her eyes fluttered open.

She had amazing eyes, bright turquoise with a circle of gold around the iris, and slit pupils. Her face was pretty too, like a Fey’s, and she certainly had the pointed ears for it. Her skin was a dark blue mottled by glowing golden freckles and her hair was a golden honey blonde but with streaks of turquoise that matched her eyes. I had never seen anything like her before and she was young too, maybe fourteen or so.

“Hey, you’re going to be okay, Miss. Those guys won’t hurt you any…” I started to assure her before my thoughts caught up with me. “Wait a minute, I’m almost certain that she had brown hair when I started healing her, I don’t think her skin was that dark either, or I would have noticed it even with the bruising. Did I just…”

I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat as I noticed that Melody, Jessica, and Carmilla were all gaping at me and the girl and briefly, I wondered just how bad that I had just fucked up this girl’s life before that thought was interrupted. The girl, who had been patting down her body with a confused look on her face, reached her crotch and gasped, “It’s gone!”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 19 of A Cold Fey In Hell. There won't be a chapter on Patreon this week as I started on something new to help me sleep at nights and it's been really hitting me hard and making it hard to write. A word of warning, there is a referenced assault near the beginning of the chapter. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 19: Oh Momma!

The strange girl patted her hands back upward, where they settled over her breasts, giving a slight squeeze before she grinned and said, “Omigod, please don’t be a dream.” Then it was like a switch had been flipped as an expression of panic washed over her and she began tearing at her clothes, trying desperately to get them off and seemingly too frantic to remember the existence of zippers or buttons. Not that she needed them, she was strong and she quickly tore her already shabby clothes to scrap fabric, only letting out a sigh of relief once she was finally naked.

The glowing golden freckles weren’t just on her face, they were present all over her body, though much more prevalent on her arms and legs. Except for those freckles and her dark blue skin, her body was much like that of a young Nymph with the hints of an hourglass figure to come. She was almost delicate with maybe b-cup breasts, a slim waist, and slightly wide hips, and she probably still had some growing to do since it looked like she couldn’t have been older than fourteen. Despite that delicate softness, I could see the definition of muscles beneath the surface as she moved.

I wondered if her sudden need to destroy her clothing was because of an aversion to clothing like my own, a Fey allergy to synthetics, or because of the discomfort that they had surely been causing to the large wings unfolding from her back. It was possibly all of the above. She had large translucent butterfly wings colored an iridescent azure with veins of gold, and there was a faint glow coming from them that bathed the alley in cerulean light. Her head was now turned, transfixed by those wings and she reached out to tentatively touch one. The moment that she did, her eyes widened in realization and she fainted.

“Dammit, okay, I may have goofed big time here,” I grumbled as I knelt beside her and gently shook her awake. She resisted at first but finally, her eyes began to flutter open and I placed a hand gently on her shoulder to calmly say, “Please, keep calm. We’re… ummm… here to help.” Yes, because I had helped so much already.

She looked up at the contact and those strange eyes suddenly locked on mine, and it was like there was a sudden surge of electricity between us for a brief instant. In that instant, an expression of recognition and adoration covered her face before she practically jumped on me to engulf me in a hug, damn near crushing me in her arms. Okay, that was a little unnerving but not near as much as when she nuzzled against me and murmured, “Mmmmomma.”

I looked at the others in confusion but they were just as confused as me, probably more. At least Carmilla seemed to have some presence of mind though as she said, “I can’t find a purse or anything to indicate who she might be. Get her in the car, we can’t leave her here so you’ll have to take her home until we can find out who and what she is. Maybe Tiff or Isabella will have some ideas. I’ll wake up one of these idiots and see if I can find out why they attacked her and what they know.”

I had a pretty good idea of what she was, even if I didn’t know who. I had just created a new species of Paranormal because I had brute-forced my Divine magic while trying to save her. This was exactly the kind of thing that Mom had warned me could happen if I didn’t focus on exactly what I wanted my magic to do. What was with the ‘Momma’ thing though?

Melody tried to pick the girl up to carry her to the Charger but she started to panic, clung tighter to me, and damn near cut off my breathing in the process. Finally, I retrieved my keys from where I had stuffed them in my pocket earlier and tossed them to Jess. “You drive, Sis.” Then I gently tapped the girl’s shoulder and tried to speak reassuringly. “We need to get you in my car, I’ll stay with you in the back seat but I need you to let go of me and walk with me, okay?”

After a moment she nodded and released me from her death grip, allowing us both to get to our feet. Soon I had her settled in the back seat with me and as Jess drove us back to Pandora’s Box I tried to get her to talk. I figured that a good place to start would be with her name since I couldn’t exactly keep referring to her as ‘the girl’ or some derivative thereof. “I’m Crystal, what’s your name?”

The girl looked at me in confusion, her face scrunching up in concentration for a moment before she finally looked at me pleadingly and shook her head. “I… can’t remember. What’s my name, Momma?”

Jessica unsuccessfully attempted to cover a giggle as she drove but I shot her a serious glare via the rearview mirror. As gently as I could I told the girl, “I’m sorry, I’m not your mother, we just found you being attacked by some dudes in an alley and came to help.”

That proved to be a mistake as her eyes started to get misty and her lower lip trembled for a moment before she vigorously shook her head. “No! You’re Momma, I can feel it!” Awww shit, now she was starting to cry.

“Whoa! Okay, calm down, there’s nothing to cry about. We’re totally gonna figure this out,” I told her as soothingly as I could. I did not need a kid. Cinder was okay because she was a baby and adorable and I didn’t really need to do much with her yet except send loving thoughts and eat a little more but this was a whole different story. I needed to figure out who this kid was and what to do with her. “Why don’t you tell me what you do remember,” I suggested.

What she remembered, turned out to be not a lot. The poor girl’s memory was like Swiss cheese. She remembered everyday knowledge well enough, like that we were in a car and what cell phones were. Details like her parents’ names, where she was born, and her birthday were all gone, though she was pretty sure that she had turned thirteen recently. Like her age, she could remember some other general things, and those things were enough to paint a pretty dismal picture of her life up until we found her.

I was assuming that she grew up in a normie household since she had no idea what Paranormals were, she thought that I was talking about a movie genre. She was also a runaway. She was a boy who felt that she should be a girl and her parents were ultra-conservative and religious. Whenever she did something too feminine there was a beating to attempt to get her to man up and to cast out her ‘perverted thoughts.’ It made me furious, people like that didn’t deserve to have kids.

She had run away and spent the past six months to a year living on the streets and taking shelter in abandoned buildings, dressing in girls’ clothes she had found in charity bins. She had been squatting in an abandoned building with several other runaways, most of whom were teenagers when one had tried to force himself on her and discovered her secret. She kicked him between the uprights and ran for all she was worth, and we had come across her when the would-be-rapist and his friends had caught up with her.

With her memory gaps, it seemed that she was now convinced that the people who raised her hadn’t been her real parents, that they had stolen her from her real mother, and that I had awakened her true nature when we were reunited. It was a hodgepodge of traumatic memories, appealing fairy tales, and pure coincidence but she didn’t want to let it go. She was convinced I was her mother because she knew it the moment that she looked in my eyes and I apparently smelled right, whatever that meant.

By the time I had gotten as much as I could out of her we were back at the club so we took the girl upstairs to see Dr. Diaz. She wouldn’t let me leave her side though so I had to sit through the whole examination too. I guess that was okay though since Carmen’s mother had a lot of questions for me about what exactly I had done when I healed her. Eventually, the excitement of the night took its toll though and she fell asleep on the examination table while Dr. Diaz grilled me.

Noting her lack of consciousness, Carmen’s mother guided me out into the hall so we could speak without waking her. Once the door was closed behind us she looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Crystal, I’m going to be frank here. I have no idea what she is, I’ve never seen or heard of anything like her before.”

“I was afraid of that,” I grumbled. “I fucked up. I panicked and let my magic control things, but it was my first time consciously using Divine magic and she was dying. We didn’t have time to get her here or for an ambulance to get there.”

The doctor placed a sympathetic hand on my shoulder. “It’s times like this that I’m glad that Carmen and I only have the Life aspect of Divine magic and not the Creation aspect. This is why you need to always be conscious of exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, Crystal.”

“Yeah, I’m expecting a hell of a lecture from Mom about that,” I replied with a sigh.

“You tried to save a life, Crystal. You did the right thing and, although it demonstrates just how important it is that you learn to control your magic as soon as possible, I can’t be angry with you for that. I’m sure that Tiffani will feel the same,” she told me gently. “That being said, you will need to take responsibility for this mistake. She thinks you’re her mother, and in a way she’s right. So I think that Tiffani and the others will agree that that makes her your responsibility.”

“What do you mean she’s right?” I asked with a frown. She couldn’t seriously expect me to treat this girl as my kid, I wasn’t even finished high school yet.

“I believe that when she first looked at you eye to eye that she imprinted on you. I suspect that future children of her kind will be born Manifested and the imprinting is a natural process to connect them to their mother when they first open their eyes, it’s not that uncommon in the animal kingdom. It would explain her insistence that you’re her mother and I think that imprinting at such a late age may be partially responsible for her scrambled memories since she’s re-associating her mother figure with you,” she told me patiently. “Even putting the imprinting aside, you also created her and she is unique. You brought new life into the world and that is the very definition of a mother, Crystal.”

“She’s right, Snowflake,” my own mother agreed as she approached. “While I could have waited a few more years to become a grandmother, you are responsible for this girl now.”

I was surprised that she was upstairs until I saw that it was nearly one-thirty. Well, it looked like once again I wasn’t going to get laid tonight, and now I apparently had a thirteen-year-old kid to worry about too. Why can’t my life ever be simple? “Sorry, Mom, I fucked up. I guess Carmilla told you what happened?”

“She did,” Mom replied, though at least she didn’t sound mad. “She also told me that the child stopped breathing while you were working hard to save her. We will intensify your training but you can’t be blamed for doing what you could to save a life. Milla couldn’t find out any other information about the child other than the other kids called her Snoop. I should think you can come up with something more appropriate for her, my little snowflake. Isabella, is there anything that you can tell us that will help us to see to her needs?”

Dr. Diaz nodded and jumped on the new topic immediately. “She is definitely a Fey variant, possibly a Nymph variant. It could be that Crystal was at least subconsciously guiding the transformation to some degree. She should have similar dietary requirements as the two of you as well as the usual Fey quirks. I noticed there was a faint rash from the clothes she was wearing that was hard to notice due to her skin tone, but she seems to have some low-level regeneration from the rate that it was fading.”

“Anything else,” my mother asked, nodding thoughtfully at the new information.

“Her wings may seem delicate, with how easily they can fold against her back, but they seem to be very sturdy. Her muscles seem denser than normal, especially those connected to her wings so she should have some degree of enhanced speed and strength, though I would caution her to be careful about getting too rough. Despite the wings and denser muscles, she weighs less than she should for her height and size. I’m guessing that her bones are hollow and that in combination with her adapted musculature are meant to assist with flight. I would like to get someone with mage sight to get a look at her so we can figure out what element she’s aligned to and what abilities she may have but I don’t know anyone that I’m sure we could trust.” The last part was said with a frown and a distinctly regretful tone.

“What about Ashe?” I asked a bit uncertainly. “I mean, she knew things that she shouldn’t have about me and Sorcha so maybe Salamanders have some sort of mage sight?”

Mom’s and Dr. Diaz’s eyes widened and then Mom smiled and nodded. “That’s not a bad idea. I would like to know if this is something that Ashe is capable of, having someone with dependable mage sight that we can confer with could be useful in cases like this. Could you ask her, Snowflake?”

I nodded and sent my thoughts out to Ashe, hoping that the Salamander wasn’t already asleep. ~Ashe, are you awake?~

~I am, little one, what has you contacting me so late?~

~You… umm… knew things about us, things we didn’t know or were keeping hidden. I was wondering how. Carmen’s Mom was talking about wanting to find someone with mage sight, are you able to do something like that?~ I asked tentatively.

~My kind do not see the weave of magic as a mortal with mage sight can, but we see the true nature and potential of living creatures, things they may not know themselves and what elements they are aligned to, it is how we find suitable hosts for our children,~ the Salamander explained patiently.

~Okay, I think that’s what we need. I goofed, Ashe. I was healing someone tonight and I changed her, I sorta created a new type of Paranormal and we’d like to know what we might be dealing with since she’s kinda my responsibility now,~ I explained.

~I shall come, Crystal,~ she assured me and a moment later she materialized beside me in the hallway.

“She said that she can’t see magic but she should be able to do what we need,” I told my mother and Dr. Diaz carefully.

“Let’s go take a peek at sleeping beauty then,” Dr. Diaz said with a nod before pushing the clinic door open once again and leading us inside.

Mom got one look at her and gasped, “She’s lovely, Crystal, beautiful workmanship.” Then she seemed to realize what she said and added in a more serious tone, “But you need to learn to properly control your magic. We can’t have any more accidents like this.”

~Your mother is correct, little one, on both counts. Oh! How wonderful, she’s aligned to the Divine! However, I do not see the potential for magic use in her, except the use of glamours. She will be quick, graceful, and strong, and while she has no potential for magic herself, her senses are highly attuned to it,~ Ashe said in a pleased tone once she had taken a few minutes to examine the girl.

~What? Like mage sight?~ I asked.

The Salamander seemed very pleased as she corrected me. ~This goes far beyond mere mage sight, little one. She is my opposite in a way. Though she cannot see the nature of people and things, her senses are highly attuned to magic. With enough experience, she should be able to see, smell, and taste it well enough to determine the nature of spells, the individual flavors of magic users, and the ambient mana that they leave in their wake. She is a magic tracker.~

Once I had passed on that information to my mother and Dr. Diaz they both frowned as the latter muttered, “The PDA would love to recruit someone like her for one of their Hunter teams but so would people like the Chimera Syndicate. You’ll need to reinforce that she needs to keep the scope of her abilities hidden to everyone but family, just as much as you, Carmen, and Sorcha do.”

I groaned, but I knew all too well how important it would be to keep her abilities secret. I could also understand that they were right about her being my responsibility but I also had a life to live. “I’ve got lessons and stuff, and then I have school in January, I can’t have her following me around like a baby duckling and calling me Momma all the time,” I told them with a sigh. “I’m too young to be a mother.”

“Said every teenage mother ever,” Mom said sarcastically, though she did wrap me up in a hug and that made me feel a bit better.

“Yeah, but most teenage moms don’t have kids that are only five years younger than them,” I grumbled. I knew they were both right, well, all three of them if I included Ashe. The truth was though that I was growing to love my Mom more and more with each passing day and I was glad I had her and this new family to turn to when Jess and I lost everything. The girl we found didn’t have a mother that loved her unconditionally, but if she saw me as that person could I really not at least try to provide what she needed like my mom did for me and Jess?

“This child has been through some major trauma, Crystal, and that is going to take time to heal. From what I’ve observed while talking with her she is also emotionally immature and extremely insecure, so she may be clingy for a while. We will try to get her comfortable enough with the rest of the family that you can have your alone time when you need it but the person that she is going to respond best to will likely always be you,” Dr. Diaz pointed out as Ashe sent me a mental good night and excused herself to get back to her job of heating the building and water.

I sent my own good night back to the Salamander, nodded in response to Carmen’s mother, and let out a little sigh before conceding, “I’ll give it a try but I’m not sure if I’m ready for this kind of responsibility. I only recently Manifested myself and I have a bunch of issues of my own to deal with. I have no idea what to do about her education and identity, if I go to the PDA about getting her put in my care after the bimbo act that I pulled the other day, they’re gonna laugh me out of there and probably take her to some Paranormal orphanage where we can’t do anything for her.”

My Mom giggled and then smirked my concern. “My dear little snowflake, did I forget to mention that Jimmy called this morning? For some reason, neither of the people who did your intake wanted to become your permanent caseworker, I can’t imagine why. Jimmy generously offered to do so in their place. We can call him tomorrow about coming to do a home visit and he can do a home intake for your new charge then.”

“Do you think he’d be willing?” I asked uncertainly. Mom seemed to trust him and he had helped with our new identities and apparently had helped do the same for many of the others in our weird not-so-little family. He was a likable guy too, so I was hoping that he’d be willing.

Mom nodded. “He did something similar back when Pan officially adopted Rhissa and needed to register her. Since he’s in the know about you and me, and we can be sure he isn’t being monitored here, we can tell him what happened and work out what will look good on the paperwork together. You should choose a proper name for her though since she doesn’t seem to remember hers.”

I groaned but I knew that she was right. “I didn’t think I’d be naming a kid for at least another decade or two. Maybe Selina? Selina Tiffani Cummings?”

Mom surprised me by letting out a squeal of excitement and wrapping me up in a bear hug. I guess she liked my choice. Unfortunately, that also caused the subject of the name to stir from her sleep. She looked around in confusion and uncertainty for a moment before catching sight of me as Mom released me. “Momma?”

I sighed but tried to put on my game face. She needed me and I was responsible for her current situation after all. So I took a deep breath and walked over to smile at her and take her hand. “Sorry to wake you, Selina.”

“Selina?” she asked in slightly sleepy confusion, leaning into me and trying to snuggle closer.

“That’s your name, Selina Tiffani Cummings,” I told her gently. “I know that you’re probably pretty tired but I want you to meet someone before we take you somewhere to sleep. You already met Dr. Diaz, but I’d like you to meet my mother… your… umm… grandmother, Tiffani.”

Selina looked from one of us to the other and I knew that it wasn’t too hard to see the family resemblance between us. I could almost see a resemblance in Selina as well if it weren’t for the dark blue skin, glowing freckles, and wings. I made a mental reminder to get Aunt Merry to teach her about glamours since Ashe seemed certain that she possessed the ability. “Grandmother?” Selina asked, her sleepy eyes widening as a frightened look washed over her and I wondered what trauma that word had associated with it. Damn, this girl really needed a loving family.

“You can call me Nana Tiffani, Sweetie,” my mother offered with a sad look. I was pretty sure that she agreed with my assessment. “You poor girl, being out on your own for so long without a family to love and care for you. Those days are over now, we’ll take good care of you, you’re with a real family now and we look after and accept one another.”

A sleepy smile turned Selina’s lips slightly upward as my mom stressed the word girl slightly. “Okay, Nana Tiffani.” It seemed that was exactly what she needed to hear, that she was a girl and accepted for it.

Oh yeah, Mom knew exactly what buttons to push to make her feel safe and accepted and she was going in full grandmother mode and taking charge right out of the gate. “The first thing that Crystal and I are going to do is show you to your room so you can get a good sleep in a nice, warm, and clean bed, Selina. Tomorrow you can start off the morning with a nice hot shower and a big breakfast and we will introduce you to the rest of the family.”

I decided to get in on it as well since Selina was looking to me for approval. I nodded and smiled at her and added, “Mom, maybe we can get Aunt Merry to teach her to cast glamours tomorrow morning while I’m doing my lessons. We’ll need to take her shopping for clothes and necessities after all.”

“That’s a good idea, Snowflake. We’ll both take her and have Merry and Annika come along to keep us all safe. It’s time that we were all in bed though.” With that, we said our goodnights to Dr. Diaz and made our way toward the other residential hallway where Mom and I both had our rooms. We made sure to show Selina which room was mine before Mom led us to the next unoccupied dorm room a few doors down from mine.

We showed her inside and she seemed a bit shocked at the size of the room, the walk-in closet, and her own bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub. I couldn’t blame her since I’d had much the same reaction. “This is all for me?” she timidly inquired.

“Yes, and if you need me I’ll be sleeping just a couple of doors down the hall where we showed you,” I assured her. “Now you need to get in bed young lady, we have to be up early and we have lots to do tomorrow.”

I had her get comfortable in the bed as I tried to think of all the things I always wanted a mother to do for me while growing up. With that in mind, I tucked her in and kissed her tenderly on the forehead. Once Mom had kissed her good night as well and we assured her once again that we were both just down the hall if she needed us, we turned off the light so she could sleep. Well, at least she wasn’t going to need a nightlight since those glowing golden freckles and her wings, even folded up against her upper back again as they seemed to do when she was sleepy, provided plenty of light.

As I closed the door behind us I let out a sigh of relief. “I’m not really sure that I’m cut out for this parenting thing, Mom.”

“You’re doing fine, now get some sleep,” she told me, kissing me gently on the forehead, much as we had Selina a moment earlier.

“Good night, Mom. I know that I haven’t really said it much since we got here but I love you and I’m glad that we found you,” I replied, hugging her tightly.

“I love you too, Snowflake. I wish that I could have been there as you and Jessica grew up, but we have one another now, and that is what matters. Sleep well,” she whispered, kissing me once again as I finally broke the embrace.

I headed to my bedroom, half-hoping that Melody would be there waiting for me but we both knew when Selina had refused to be separated from me that we likely wouldn’t have our time together tonight. “Tomorrow night for sure,” I promised myself as I got undressed and crawled into my bed.

Still, I was too keyed up by everything that happened to sleep yet so I tried to take my mind off my wandering thoughts by trying to relieve some of my pent-up sexual energy. I couldn’t manage it though; my thoughts were all over the place. I was worried about my new charge, angry about what she had gone through, and although I had seen her naked for most of the time I had spent with her, it had done nothing for me. I felt almost maternal, and it wasn’t just because I felt responsible for her. Since the moment our eyes had met I felt a connection to her. Maybe when she imprinted it wasn’t a one-way thing?

It was three in the morning and I was finally drifting off when there was a tentative knock at my door. Reluctantly I crawled out of bed with a yawn and opened the door to find Selina standing on the other side. She looked uncertain and frightened and there were trails of tears running down her cheeks as she flinched and mumbled, “I had a scary dream, Momma.”

I wasn’t surprised, nor should I have been after the night that she had endured. I was fairly sure that the only good part of her night was me changing her into a girl, even if she wasn’t human anymore. Sadly, I suspected that she had far more reasons than just that to have nightmares. And the way she flinched as she asked, hoping for love that her parents should have given her, made me want to hunt down the assholes who had broken her so badly and give them good cause for nightmares.

Instead, I gave her the best reassuring smile that I could manage and said, “You can sleep in here with me tonight, but we need to be up in a few hours to get ready for the day.” I crawled back in bed and once she climbed into bed with me I put my arms protectively around her and held off my own rest until her wings folded back up against her back and I was sure that she was asleep.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 20 of A Cold Fey In Hell. I'm starting to have less trouble with the sleepiness from the new meds so I'm hoping to have a new chapter posted on Patreon later today as well. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 20: Doubts

When I awoke to the alarm I was immediately conscious of Selina clinging to me tightly, almost desperately, in her sleep. I could also feel in the back of my mind that Cinder was awake so that meant that I had two kids to show some affection. I reached over to turn off the alarm while wrapping my still somewhat sleepy thoughts around Cinder’s presence in my mind like a quilt patched together with warmth, affection, and love. ~Good morning, Cinder, how’s my baby this morning?~

The Salamander’s mental presence seemed to curl up cozily within my own, the raw warmth and affection of her infant mind nuzzling against mine in response. There was so much genuine love and adoration there and, as always, it warmed my heart in ways that I had never experienced before our bonding. Feeling another presence sharing your mind and body, one that depended on you and loved you that much, it would take a pretty shitty and self-absorbed person not to love her back.

For a few minutes, I just laid there luxuriating in our mental embrace, time for only the two of us. Despite her sleepy protests though, I had to extract my thoughts so I could get both Selina and myself ready for the day ahead. So I gave Cinder one last mental embrace and, as she nuzzled against my thoughts and drifted gradually back toward unconsciousness, I turned my attention to my new charge, gently shaking her shoulder.

“Selina, I know that you probably didn’t sleep very well but it’s time to get up,” I said in an as quiet and gentle tone as possible. The last thing that this girl needed was to be woken roughly or to raised voices if my suspicions were correct. For her sake, I would need to make a conscious effort to be as loving and supportive as possible while remaining mindful to not do anything that might trigger her seemingly fragile mind.

For a moment, she nuzzled in closer, the protective ball that she was curled up in seeming to seek as much physical contact as possible. It was as if she was afraid that she would wake up and find out that I wasn’t real but, given her behavior the night before, that wasn’t all that surprising. I was about to issue another slightly more insistent attempt at waking her when those strange and beautiful turquoise and gold eyes began to flutter open.

The moment that her eyes opened completely she was instantly alert and they were scanning the area as if searching for danger. It took her several seconds to realize where she was and when she did she visibly relaxed as she yawned and stretched and her wings opened up. I had noticed in our limited interaction so far that when she was sleepy or feeling guarded her wings pulled inward to fold themselves against her back, was it some sort of instinctive defense mechanism?

Her stretching complete, she smiled adoringly at me. “Good morning, Momma. I… thought that I dreamed last night,” she admitted timidly. The blush she wore tinted her sapphire blue skin a deep royal purple, though her freckles seemed unaffected as they continued to glow faintly with their golden light.

“Well, seeing as you’re here with me, you probably didn’t,” I replied offering a supportive smile. “Are you going to be okay to go take a shower in your room, Selina? There should be enough basic shampoo and conditioner and stuff in there for now, and we’ll get you more later today. I’m going to take one as well and once I’m ready your Aunt Jess, Melody, and I will try to find you something to wear, okay?”

She seemed hesitant for a moment but then took a deep breath, bit her lower lip a little, and finally nodded. “Okay, Momma.”

Once my new ‘daughter’ had left to return to her room I was able to head into my bathroom for a shower of my own. I didn’t realize just how tense I was until I felt that hot water hitting my muscles. For a while, I just enjoyed the spray of water and then I really enjoyed the spray. Oh, my Goddess, Carmen was right. That pulse setting on the handheld showerhead was amazing. I got a pair of really satisfying orgasms out of it and it was so damn nice to get some sort of relief and ease my sexual tension, even if It was only a drop in the bucket.

After that, I was quite a bit more relaxed as I hurried through the rest of my shower. I still made sure to do everything that Jess had gone over in her lessons, it was just a bit quicker. I had dried off and was working on my hair with my hairdryer when my sister knocked on my door and peeked inside. “So, how is Momma Crystal this morning?” she teased.

I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh as I kept working on my hair for a moment before giving her a serious look. “Well, it’s official, you’re now an aunt.” At her look of confusion, I began to explain. I started with how she had apparently imprinted on me and how that and the fact that I had been the one to accidentally create her made me responsible for her. I also told her Selina’s new name and about how she had had a nightmare and came to climb in bed with me in the early hours of the morning.

Between that and what she had heard last night of what Selina had been through until we found her, Jess agreed that Selina really needed a loving and supportive family. Since Jess was near-identical to me I was hoping that Selina might start to trust Jess a little easier than the others. So, while I got dressed, my sister went to her room to look through her old clothes from before we started to do the twin thing in the hopes of finding some stuff that might fit Selina.

Jessica had been an inch or so taller at five foot five before she changed to look like me but she had also been a lot less curvy so her old clothes might be a little long on Selina, who was probably about five foot one. Still, they would fit her less developed frame a lot better than anything we wore now. There was also the fact that we could be sure that all of her old clothes were made from natural fibers. Dr. Diaz had proven that Selina was a Fey variant last night in part because of her looks, but also because of the fading rash from the synthetic fibers that she had been wearing when I changed her.

When I joined Jess and we took the pile of clothes in to see what could work for her we also discovered that, much like a Nymph, wearing clothes made Selina feel anxious and uncomfortable. Still, we managed to get her into some silk undergarments that didn’t fit her too badly, followed by a coral-colored silk halter top that kept Selina’s wings free and a black and baby pink tartan skirt that worked well on her long legs. The black and pink canvas running shoes were about a size too big, but some cotton socks helped with that.

Selina had decided that she wanted to wear her long hair down instead of tying it back in a ponytail or something to keep it out of her way. It was down past her shoulder blades and the predominantly honey blonde color was very striking against her sapphire blue skin. I felt that the turquoise streaks added a bit of sass and personality too. Still, rather than having it completely loose, Jess used a pair of navy blue hair clips with glittery butterflies on them to have Selina’s hair frame her face nicely rather than having it constantly get in her eyes and in the way.

By the time we got her ready to go downstairs the clothes were making her uncomfortable and fidgety and the expression on her face was really conflicted as she looked herself over in the mirror. “It’s okay, you’ll get used to your new self,” Jess tried to assure her with a concerned look. “Crystal… your mom hasn’t been a Nymph all that long and she went through a big change too.”

Selina’s breathing hitched slightly in surprise and she shook her head, looking like she was trying to hold back tears. “It’s not that. I… I’m finally a girl and I think that this is who I was meant to be. I… just… it’s the clothes. I don’t want to seem ungrateful because these are the nicest clothes I’ve ever worn. I… umm… I could never find nice things like this in the charity bins and I really like them but…”

I placed a hand gently on her shoulder to try to calm her some and attempted to speak in a tone that would reassure her. “I know, wearing clothes makes you feel uncomfortable and is extremely anxiety-inducing, I have the same problem so we understand, Selina. We’re not going to get upset with you about it. It’s okay to not wear clothes in the privacy of your room but around other people, especially normies, you have to wear them and they need to be made from natural fibers. You’ll need a glamour as well; Aunt Merry will teach you about that.”

We were a few minutes late for breakfast after leaving Selina’s room and meeting up with Melody, partly because of the prolonged good morning kisses and groping. Don’t judge us, we were clam jammed again last night and the showerhead was nice, but I wanted Melody. Everyone was already settled and eating by the time we joined them.

Selina actually looked to me for permission before reaching for anything and I had to wonder when the last time was that the poor girl had eaten a decent meal. Everyone, including me, encouraged her to not be shy and to eat her fill, and as she ate I explained who she was and what had happened the night before to everyone. Once that was out of the way, the introductions were made.

Selina was, of course, a bit shy with everyone at first, especially the few males in our family. I probably would have been too after what had happened to her the night before, so everyone was fairly understanding. Even Lou made a concentrated effort not to stick his foot in his mouth, though he did inform me that his uncle was willing to let us use his shop for installing the mods for the Charger on Sunday, the day after Christmas. His uncle was even willing to help us to make sure that everything was done right and had contacted his friend about getting the custom roll bars for the Charger as well.

Selina did hit it off fairly well with Carmen and Sorcha, or rather she was less shy with them than with everyone else. Carmen wasn’t too much older than her and Sorcha is just too freaking adorable not to love at first sight. Everyone was trying to put her at ease and treat her as part of the family and, though I could see that it made Selina happy, she wasn’t really sure what to do or where she fit in. So she spent a lot of her time watching quietly, even with those of us she did seem comfortable with.

Yeah, it was going to take her a while to get used to being around people who cared for her and accepted her for who she was. She was still in that state of cautiously hoping that it wasn’t a dream, probably half-expecting to wake up at any moment and find that her body still didn’t match her soul and she was sleeping in a condemned building. Seeing her having to be so cautious and hesitant about accepting what her birth family should have given her broke my heart a little.

Mom, Merriwynd, and the other ‘adults’ tried to draw her out of her shell some by drawing her little by little into the conversation. There were no questions about her past or anything that could have brought up the trauma she had obviously endured, far too many of those of us living under the roof of Pandora’s Box knew better than that. Tragic pasts were all too common among us and most of us had learned to live in the present rather than summon the shades of the past.

They started by teaching her about the Paranormal in general and their own species. They cautioned her about dealing with humans and to never let them find out what she was or what she could do, and to keep the secrets of the others living here as well. “We all care for and protect one another because that’s what a real family does,” Carmilla said at one point.

“And if we don’t, nobody will,” Nixie added.

“So, little one, what should we call your species?” Aunt Merry gently inquired. “You are the only one of your kind, so it only fair that you should choose what you will be called from today onward.”

Selina looked down at the table uncertainly. “I… umm… maybe Momma should choose since she… umm… created me?” She lifted her head to give me an imploring, hopeful look.

Ugh. I sucked at naming things, I was surprised that the poor kid didn’t hate the name that I had saddled her with. Still, I tried to think of something not too lame. With that dark blue skin and those glowing golden freckles, she kind of reminded me of the night sky. So maybe something related to astronomy or something? “How about Astrae?” I suggested weakly.

Several of the others around the tables nodded and smiled, apparently figuring out where I had gotten my inspiration. What surprised me was that everyone just kind of accepted the name with no real discussion. Selina seemed to like it as well from the way that she was smiling at me. With that, the discussion once again turned to Selina as my mother asked, “How are you feeling Selina? You look a bit uncomfortable. I can understand that you’re not used to being around so many people, but is there anything else bothering you?”

“She seems to share our aversion to clothing,” I pointed out, figuring out what Mom was getting at.

“Anything else?” Rhissa asked cautiously of the Astrae. “Any desires, strange compulsions, or things that feel strange?”

Selina looked at the Huldra in confusion for a moment before shaking her head. “Just some strange smells and tastes and stuff but… uhh… wouldn’t that make sense since my body is different now?”

“It could be your ability to sense magic starting to develop,” Dr. Diaz suggested. “There’s nothing else? No sexual desires? You resemble a Nymph a lot in your face and body for your age and Nymphs often have extremely elevated sex drives. Sorry to ask, Selina, but we need to prepare you if you do share that quirk.”

Selina blushed and quickly looked down at the table, shaking her head so rapidly that I imagined that it might fly off her shoulders if she wasn’t stopped. “No… nothing like that. Just the weird stuff with my senses and clothes being really hard to wear.”

“Seems like she dodged that bullet,” my mother said, sighing in relief.

After that, we had a brief conversation about what to do about Selina’s schooling. We were considering just homeschooling her until next year when she would be old enough to go to St. Michelle’s but I was worried about helping her keep up while I had school and possibly a job to worry about. It was quickly settled when Mom and the other dancers offered to alternate at helping her with her studies at home during the day for the next semester while I was in classes and to try to help her catch up on things she missed learning while homeless. They figured that it would give everyone some practice to prepare for doing the same thing next year when Sorcha was old enough to start homeschooling until she was ready for high school.

With breakfast finished, we started to split up to go about our daily activities. Selina was reluctant to leave my sight so Aunt Merry offered to teach her to use glamours in one of the club’s booths that were close to the stage while I started my lessons with the three Succubus sisters. Annika said that she could handle Jessica and Melody’s combat training on her own for the day and the pair followed the imposing Amazon up to the second floor and the training room.

It seemed that Lana had managed to make me some tight-fitting panties and a bikini top to exercise in and the Dicken sisters sent me off to claim them from Lana in her workshop as soon as we finished eating. Lana instructed me to put them on under my clothes and underwear so I could practice taking everything off during a performance without worrying about my modesty, not that I had any. I just shrugged and went along with it, using the backstage changing area, and then once I had even more layers of clothing on to annoy me, I headed out to the stage.

Stella immediately started teaching me a new choreography that she had come up with just for me. It was slinky, sexy, and graceful all at the same time but she was a firm taskmaster, making sure that I got each movement in a sequence just right before even showing me the next. She was a stickler for keeping my body moving just right, moving with the music rather than following it and removing pieces of clothing at just the right time in the song while making it all look natural.

It wasn’t just her either. Adora would stop me sometimes too, showing me the best way to take off a piece of clothing to make it sexy, sassy, and flirty or correcting the movements that I was learning to make my body language more teasing and sexual. She said that I had all the right assets, I just had to learn to properly flaunt them. She also had a large number of flourishes that she wanted me to casually throw in there, like shaking out my hair, pursing my lips just right, the come hither eyes, or running a finger slowly down across my lips. It wasn’t just my body that was important, every nuance about every movement or facial expression had to ooze sex appeal.

I must have danced out of my clothes and put them back on several dozen times by the time we were finished but the pair seemed happy with my progress. Luckily raw sex appeal came somewhat naturally to me and I actually caught myself doing some of those things without thinking by the end of our time. Now I was kind of worried about unthinkingly doing the come hither eyes or something sexy with my lips while out in public. Oh well, I was already a bit of a tease without meaning to be, this couldn’t make things that much worse.

When I was finished with them and we were taking a hydration break Anita told me not to bother getting dressed again since it was time to get me on the pole. I fell a few times, okay a lot of times, but it was so much fun. I was learning to move my body in amazing new ways and using muscles that I never knew I had. Hanging upside down, allowing myself to slowly slide downward, and learning to use my momentum to carry out some wicked and sexy-looking maneuvers had my heart beating wildly in my chest, and not just because of the physical exertion.

There was an art to using the pole just right, and making movements that put a hell of a lot of strain on the muscles appear casual and erotic. Sometimes it was all in the muscles and balance and sometimes momentum could literally make or break you. It was a precise art but, at the same time, it was wild and impulsive and made me feel like I was flying and so damn sexy.

Oh yeah, and we totally had to clean that pole when I was done because I was so turned on. Seriously, I could do this and get paid for it? Working at the club when I turned eighteen was starting to become more and more appealing. By the end, I was nursing bruises, a bump on the head, and friction burns in really unpleasant places, but I was beaming from ear to ear as Anita turned me over to my mom for Divine magic lessons.

Sadly, I had to put my clothes back on and leave my new favorite long and hard pole behind and get dressed when Mom came to join us. As I dressed I could hear her talking with the Succubae and the three of them were pretty animated with what they were telling her. I tried not to listen in and focus on dressing, though I did notice that Selina was very involved in her lesson with Aunt Merry. The Fey had been smart and had my new charge sitting in a chair facing away from the stage rather than in the booth where she could get distracted by watching ‘Momma’ learn to do adult things while mostly naked.

Apparently, they had gotten past the theory part, and Aunt Merry was showing Selina how to put it into practice as Mom and I took the booth beside them for my magic lesson. Selina seemed to be a little more at ease with the Fey than she was when they had started. Aunt Merry could be gruff and pretty damn scary at times but when she cared she wasn’t afraid to show it.

Much to my dismay, Mom started me off with some mental exercises to keep my thoughts focused and to picture exactly what I wanted to do in my mind when using magic. She didn’t want any more accidents and I totally agreed with her, and felt properly chagrinned about the whole Selina affair. Okay, it turned out somewhat well for Selina so far, but Mom was pretty sure that was due to my subconscious thoughts at the time and sheer dumb luck.

It didn’t work out quite as well for me, so I guess that kind of drove home the lesson. I had just joined the ranks of the Pandora’s Box single mothers and, while I was determined to do right by Selina, this was not something that I was mentally prepared for at this stage of my life. Frankly, I would rather not have any more kids to worry about. As it was, it was a good thing that I enjoyed pole dancing so much because I was going to need a job to afford to care for myself and Selina, even with room and board covered.

Thankfully, after we spent a good half of our practice time on those mental exercises Mom taught me my first healing spell. Well, I guess it wasn’t really a spell since there’s no silly hand waving or incantations, but she did teach me what I needed to focus on and picture in my mind for each injury and what to be careful to avoid doing. Thank Goddess for that, I was sore in places that I didn’t know I had places, and, trust me, friction burn on the inner thighs is a bitch. I must have used that spell twenty times with all the various injuries I had gotten while learning and practicing my probably future occupation.

Ah well, it was experience, right? And I was getting better at ‘becoming my magic’ and keeping my thoughts focused with each repetition of the spell. We even had time for her to teach me a minor illusion to make my ears look like a normie’s. Since it was just my ears the effect probably wouldn’t even be noticeable to people who could sense magic unless they were really sensitive. Goodbye beanies and hats, it was great while it lasted but I can finally move on. I will not miss having hat-hair.

It would seem that Selina had done well at her lesson as well. She had managed to create a glamour that could have been my little sister with our similar looks. I think that she may have used me as the basis for the picture of the glamour that she had created I her mind. It made sense though since she considered me her mother and our facial features were fairly similar.

She was as pale as I was with unblemished skin rather than trying to recreate her freckles and make them look normal. Her eyes were somewhere between the ice blue of mine and the turquoise of her own, though the eyes of her glamour also lacked the gold ring around the iris and the slit pupils. Her hair remained honey blonde and she even kept the turquoise streaks, which gave her a somewhat edgy look. I didn’t see her wings, which was good, but it worried me because I wouldn’t want to risk someone bumping them if they were just obscured from sight.

As we went to join the others for lunch I smiled at my sorta-daughter. “Aunt Merry wasn’t too hard on you was she? She can be stern but only because she cares.”

“No, Momma. She made me nervous at first but she… umm… taught me all kinds of stuff about the Fey and how to make myself look like a picture in my mind,” Selina said after a moment of thought.

“Well, it looks like she did a good job. If I didn’t know who you were, I would think you’re just a normal tweenage girl, if a little on the wild side. It looks like we can get you some clothes and stuff today after all. Are your wings just hidden or tucked in?”

“Both, Momma. She had me make the glamour to hide them but I… umm… figured out how to keep them folded against my back like when I’m sleeping. She had me work on that while she was teaching me the background stuff. It’s uncomfortable but I can keep them out of the way and wear regular t-shirts, jackets, and stuff if I have to.” Selina’s eyes were worried, she looked so concerned about pleasing me, and I again cursed her human family for the fear of rejection and fear of family that they had instilled in her.

I let out a sigh and on impulse reached out to hug her. “Selina, Sweetie, you worked hard and I’m proud of you for doing so well. You don’t need to put so much pressure on yourself though, you don’t need to try to be perfect for my sake. You’re allowed to be a kid and I’ll always be happy as long as you try your best at everything you do and be yourself. Right now, you’re a traumatized girl who needs a lot of love and we can all see and accept that. This is your home now and you have a family here that is ready and eager to accept you for who you are. We aren’t going to reject you. I am not going to reject you. I know that this scares you, you’re probably afraid of embracing it because you don’t want to do that and then just lose it again. That isn’t going to happen.”

Selina buried herself in my arms sniffling, “But I’m not… I… I can feel the connection between us, Momma but I… you said you’re still in high school… I wasn’t meant to…”

“Shhh,” I shushed her as I held her and stroked her hair. I didn’t have a mom of my own to learn from until recently so I really hoped that I was doing things right here. “Yes, it was an accident and I’m not even eighteen officially for a few more weeks but I feel that connection too, I have since you first looked in my eyes after I brought you into the world in your current form. I’m told that’s the definition of a mother. I’m not going to abandon you or ask you to be someone you’re not, just like I hope you’ll accept me for who I am.”

“But you’re…” she began to protest.

“I’m unprepared for this kind of thing, I’m still figuring out who I am, and I’m pretty messed up. I am not really mother material and I’m scared to hell of failing you because you don’t deserve that and I want better for you. I’m going to do my best to give you the love and everything else that you deserve but I’m probably going to make mistakes. I’ll try not to repeat them and make it right when I do fuck up but I… we have this great family here to look out for us both so we can probably manage okay.” I told her as honestly as I could as I stroked her hair and kissed her on the forehead.

“You’re doing great so far, Momma,” she said sniffling against my chest as her tears dampened my shirt.

“Let’s go get some lunch, Selina. I’m starving and after we eat we need to get ready to go shopping with your Nana Tiffani. I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun,” I told her, guiding her toward the table as I tried to be positive for both of us.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 21 of A Cold Fey In Hell. Sine I still had four chapters sitting on Patreon I decided to post one this week since my arm is still not at 100% Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support and Merry Christmas. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 21: Playtime

After lunch, Mom took me aside, called Jimmy’s cell phone, and put us on speakerphone so we could apprise him of the Selina situation. He would be coming over the next morning after breakfast for a home intake to help us get Selina registered and properly set up with a new identity. Jimmy wasn’t even all that fazed by the whole thing since imprinting among Paranormals wasn’t entirely unheard of. Kurura apparently imprint on the first person they see after Manifesting in their mid-teens, but in more of a lifelong mate kind of way.

I guess that they usually keep their eyes covered after Manifesting to avoid imprinting on someone they’re not compatible with but a few years ago there had been a very public scandal in the local Paranormal scene. A Karura had Manifested without the usual warning signs of her species and imprinted on her boyfriend’s kid sister at a family barbeque that she had been invited to, talk about awkward. To make it worse, the family in question were all normies.

At least she had been thinking enough to call her father at the PDA as soon as she realized what had happened. They went into full containment and cover-up mode among the normies and, while Jimmy hadn’t been one of them, they’d had to send in five psychics to rewrite memories, dispose of any evidence, and ease the Karura’s mental trauma over the whole thing. Some of the local Paranormals caught wind of the incident and thought that it was overkill and that the PDA used too many resources because the Karura was the daughter of a high-level PDA agent. I know that’s bullshit though because my dad was an agent and that kind of response is pretty standard when there’s the risk of large-scale public exposure of Paranormals.

Once the call was finished and I felt better knowing that Jimmy would have my back, and Selina’s, I excused myself for a quick shower and to change my clothes. I had been perspiring mightily during the pole dance lessons and I was looking a bit disheveled, and my Nymph vanity was protesting the thought of looking, and smelling, less than my best. I was in no rush since we had decided to put off the shopping trip with Selina until the next day. We would just cancel the lessons for tomorrow and head off immediately after Jimmy’s visit.

If we had tried to do it after lunch it would have been nearly two o’clock by the time I cleaned up a bit from my perspiration-inducing lesson and we arrived at the mall. Since the club opened at four, that would have only given us two hours to get the necessities and get home. While Mom could have easily taken part of the night, or even the whole night off, the club couldn’t afford to open without the doorwoman and the only official bouncer that we had at the moment. With that in mind, we would have had to set a new world record for the five-woman shopping relay. Nope, it was far better to just wait until we had more time available tomorrow.

By the time that I was dried off and dressed in clean clothes again, I was feeling much more relaxed. We figured that Selina could just keep wearing the clothes that my sister had loaned her today and borrow some more for tomorrow until we could get her shopping done. As for what we were going to do with our afternoon, I came up with something that was fairly ingenious

Jess and Carmen had already planned on watching over Sorcha while she played for the afternoon so I decided to try and get Selina more comfortable spending time with them by arranging a ‘play date’ for my new ‘child’ and Sorcha. Sorcha was eager to have somebody to play with her dolls with in the common room and Selina was eager to get a part of her childhood that she had previously been denied, once she realized that she was not only allowed to do so but encouraged. It took her a while to get over her uncertainty and lose herself in playing with the little Selkie but she was so happy once she had that after a while the world outside their games seemed to fade away.

It brought a smile to my face seeing her like that, just being able to let go of all that fear and self-doubt for a time and embrace a part of the childhood that she had been denied. Sorcha was just as happy as Selina was since she might have often hung around with us older kids, but she seldom got to have this kind of playtime, where she could set the rules and guide the play. Not only was Selina allowing that but it was what she seemed to need. She needed to learn how to play as her identified gender rather than being forced to play out some archaic male stereotype mandated by the abusive humans who could never see her for who she was inside.

Some people might disagree with what I did, encouraging her to be a kid like that when she’s thirteen years old and should be growing up. Those people can go fuck themselves because, from everything I saw with her behavior, she had been denied a childhood as herself for long enough. It was about time she got to experience it a bit, even if it was only in short doses during play dates like this. Besides, how could I expect her to learn to be an adult and gain some confidence in who she was if she had no real positive childhood experiences to draw on?

The pair were lost to the world and Sorcha was giving Selina a good lesson on how to be a kid when Carmen winked at me. “Nice going, Crystal. I think this is good for both of them. Selina might just make a good sitter for the little angel once she’s all settled in and more sure of herself. I kinda feel bad because I stopped playing with dolls just before Sorcha started. Sure, I can play dolls with her, but Selina is more involved and actually enjoying it as much as Sorcha is, now that she’s let herself relax a bit.”

Jessica nodded and put an arm around me in a half-hug. “Yeah, good job, Sis. You’re a natural with the Mom thing.”

“That’s something I’ve always wanted to hear,” I muttered sarcastically.

“Just take the compliment, you derp,” my sister teased, slapping me lightly on the back of the head. “They seem to be really into what they’re doing, so Carmen and I can probably just sit here and watch them until it’s time for Sorcha to take a nap in an hour. If there’s anything you… uhh… need to do, now might be a good time, Sis.”

It took me a moment to realize what Jessica was suggesting and when I did my sense of responsibility toward Selina was immediately at war with the explosion of fiery heat in my loins and belly. Could I really finally do something to address this lingering aching need that had been with me since I Manifested? My breath hitched as I looked toward Melody whose eyes had gone wide with eager realization. Oh, Goddess, I needed this so bad, but Selina…

“Sis, go and have fun. Before something else happens to prevent it. I don’t know how you’ve managed to keep your self-control for this long. Don’t worry about Selina, we’ll watch her and Sorcha and if something happens that absolutely requires your attention then I’ll come to get you,” Jessica insisted before shoving me toward Melody.

I cast another look to where Selina was absorbed in playing with the much younger Selkie and got to my feet with mixed feelings. On the one hand, Selina was emotionally delicate and needed to be handled with care. I was pretty sure that I could trust my sister and Carmen to do that but she had been so clingy with me and I was worried about her rejection issues if I wasn’t around when she came back to the real world.

On the other hand, I couldn’t allow Selina to become completely dependent on me for everything either. She needed to know that the other members of our strange family would be there for her too and that I couldn’t be with her every waking moment. Ugh, I wondered if Aislinn had these kinds of issues and doubts with Sorcha.

I think I need more hands because on the third hand, I had sex really trying to dominate my thoughts again right now, and it was winning the battle. All those hands should be roaming my body right now, doing all manner of things that I had been firmly denied since my Nymph sex drive had asserted itself. A Nymph has needs and it looked like those needs were, hopefully, about to be finally satisfied. No need to twist my arm, Selina was distracted and in good hands for the moment and I hoped to be as well once I managed to get Melody to my bedroom.

With only the briefest of thankyous given in a husky and strained version of my usually chirpy voice, I turned my gaze to Melody, biting my lip against the heat of my desire. I was about to ask her to join me when my breath caught in my throat. How does this work? Do I ask her to take me to my room? Do I try to take the lead in things? I may be horny as all fuck but I really have no experience here and I was pretty sure that Melody would be the dominant one in whatever this relationship of ours was. I had a submissive streak a mile wide when I was with her; I wanted her to take charge, to take me, and make me feel like I was hers.

She seemed to sense my hesitation and picked me up in her arms like I was a small child. Damn, she really had that Demon strength thing going on. We were the same height but I was definitely the heavier of the two of us due to my bountiful curves and assets. My heart skipped a beat as she got me settled in her arms and carried me down the hall toward my room, her voice a sexy growl that was belied by the tenderness in her eyes as she asked, “This is what you want?”

My heart now decided to make up for that missed beat by hammering away in my chest as I found myself unable to do anything more than nodding, suddenly incapable of speech. Did I want this? Really? Did she need to ask? I’ve only been waiting eagerly for it and trying to make it happen since I had figured out my feelings for her, and that she seemed to share them.

The way she had just picked me up and now held me in her arms effortlessly as she walked toward our hallway made my heart flutter wildly. Oh, my Goddess, I wanted her so fucking bad right now. My breaths came staggered, shallow, and quick in my excitement as I rained kisses upon her. Not on her lips since being right in her face would prevent her from seeing where she was going while carrying me like she was, but on her neck, her earlobe, and the closest of those crimson horns that poked out from her hairline to curve backward along the side of her head above her ears like a crown.

We arrived at my door and I was barely aware of my hand reaching out frantically to turn the knob and push it open. My beautiful Demoness carried me inside, kicking the door closed behind her before carrying me to the bed and placing me on top. She didn’t just drop me, no she placed me tenderly and gently atop the bed as I continued to desperately shower her with kisses.

I pulled her atop me in my need and our lips met in a fury of passionate desire. Her hands roamed over my body as my bottom lip was trapped between her teeth, eliciting a soft groan of desire, and I was so lost at that moment that I wasn’t sure which of us had made the sound. The fire in my belly had spread outward to flush my skin, my heart was beating so fast and hard that I couldn’t tell where one beat ended and the next began, and my breathing was a desperate staccato of gasps interspersed with needy moans.

Melody’s teeth released their hold on my lower lip and I whimpered in protest until I realized that she was reaching for the zipper of my dress. I’ve never gotten out of clothes so fast in my life as I did then. I kicked my shoes off so hard that they hit the door to the hallway and allowed her to pull off my dress. Fortunately, it had built-in support so that was one less piece of clothing to remove and Melody was still working to get out of her shirt as I hastily removed my panties and tossed them off to the side where they landed on the hardwood floor with a wet plop.

A breathy giggle escaped Melody’s lips as she got her shirt off and glanced over toward where my soaked panties had hit the floor. Oh damn, she had the most amazing abs. “Someone’s eager,” she teased with a playful waggle of her eyebrows.

If she was trying to make me blush she was to be disappointed. My pale skin was already flushed dark pink with desire and I was a Nymph, soaked panties were par for the course and I had no modesty to worry about. The only thing that was frustrating me was that she was taking so goddamn long getting out of her clothes. A sound somewhere between a moan and a whimper slipped through my lips unbidden as she continued to remove her clothes tantalizingly slowly until I practically ached to feel her lips, her touch, and her soft skin.

Finally, she removed her panties leaving her standing naked above me. For a moment I forgot everything, even the urgent desire that seemed to run through my veins like molten steel, as my eyes roamed over her, taking in my lover in all her glory for the first time. As a former guy, I would have thought that it would have been her breasts or the soft folds between her legs that would have dominated my attention at first, but that wasn’t the case.

I just took it all in at first, the whole picture, and I found my breath catching in my throat in dazed wonder as I gazed at the way her rose gold skin flowed silkily over taut muscles, that beautiful face with those captivating amber eyes, the elegant curve of crimson horns in stark contrast to her long black hair. These were things I had seen every day but I never really appreciated how beautiful they were until I saw her unadorned. She was both delicate and powerful, a contrast that suited her more than anyone I had ever met, soft curves obscuring just enough to barely hint at the raw power that laid beneath.

I reached up with a shaking hand to caress her silky cheek, my finger trailing downward to trace her jawline and then downward along her slender and elegant neck. Her breath caught in her throat as I traced her collarbone and then continued to work my way down to her right breast, circling her areola languidly. Her breasts were so firm and soft, just barely a handful but is anything more than that really needed? Her nipple hardened at my caress and if mine hadn’t already been diamond-hard, I’m sure they would have risen to the occasion as well.

I continued to move my questing finger downward, the other fingers and other hand joining it to run down her sides, exploring the curve of her waist and her wide hips then down the outer thighs toward her knees before I could reach no further without getting off the bed and kneeling before her. Undaunted, I changed my course, reaching behind her to tease the backs of her legs, that apple-shaped bottom, and the curve of her spine. Was it weird that I found the curve of her spine sexy?

Yeah, when I was a guy I’ll admit that it was all about the tits and ass, but seeing Melody naked like this for the first time it wasn’t just certain obvious features that called for my attention. Maybe it was because it was Melody and not some random person but with her, it was everything. I was entranced by the whole package, and how each and every feature was brought together into one entire breathtakingly beautiful woman. “You’re so beautiful.”

We had both said it at the same time, in one gasped breath, as we took in one another’s bodies and my awareness of my desire returned with a vengeance. Melody stared at me a moment longer, tracing the curve of my pointed ear and down along my jawline causing me to shiver in pleasure at the sensation. Her fingertip hovered above my lips for but a minute before pulling away, only to be replaced by eager lips as she lowered me back to the bed, laying atop me as her lips claimed my own with bruising need.

Her tongue probed insistently at the gates of my lips and I parted them with an eager moan to allow admittance. Permission granted, her tongue slipped eagerly inside to twirl about my own in an ardent dance as her hands explored the curves of my body as I had done with her only moments earlier. I don’t know how long we laid there like that, kissing like it might be our only chance, but I was burning with desire and rubbing desperately against her thigh, my breath shuddering with need when she finally broke the kiss. For a second, and an eternity, we laid there looking into one another’s eyes, a slender thread of saliva stretching between our parted lips like a strand of spider silk.

“Fuck, I love you,” Melody whispered as she stared into my eyes. I reached up in an attempt to tease her sides with a ghostly touch but she took both of my wrists in her delicate yet strong hand, forcing my arms above my head. She was so much stronger than me, even if I had wanted to fight it I couldn’t have. “Nuh-uh,” she said in a breathy growl, “I’m in charge here, my little Muse. You’ve been a good girl, waiting for so long so first we see to your needs. If there’s time after you can see to mine.”

Oh, my Goddess. She said the L-word. Did she mean it or was it just in the heat of the moment? Well, I was certainly feeling a lot of heat at that particular moment. I didn’t think that I could get any more turned on than I already was but her taking charge like that proved me wrong. Thrills of pleasure cascaded through my entire being when she held me down, when she called me her Muse, but especially when she called me a good girl. Just the thought and feeling of pleasing her was orgasmic on a spiritual level, I damn near came from that alone.

For a brief instant I wondered what was wrong with me, just how fucked up I must be to have those things turn me on so much but I decided that I didn’t really care. No, I wanted to be Melody’s, she was the only one I would allow to lay claim to me like this. Other people could have my body for a brief time, but Melody had my heart and soul. That was why I wanted her to be my first.

My Demon Mistress smiled down at me, her free hand trailing nonsensical patterns along the flesh of my body as she nibbled on my earlobe, her hot breath bathing my ear and making me shiver in slowly mounting pleasure. My ears were so sensitive and so was my skin as her fingernail traced those patterns, teasing my flesh with aching pleasure and I tried to move my body toward the tantalizing contact. She wouldn’t let me, her fingertip pulling away as much as I moved toward it to retain only that barest phantasmal contact as the path of her fingertip caused shivers of urgent desire to dance along my skin in its wake.

It circled my breast, trailed down toward my navel, made swirling patterns over my hips and outer thighs and I felt myself growing more desperate with need with each passing second. A gasping moan escaped my lips from the mix of pleasure and pain as she nipped my earlobe and tugged at it. She released it only to grin at me before kissing her way tantalizingly along my jawline and then downward, halting only once her burning lips reached my right nipple.

Her tongue rolled around my nipple as her teasing finger started to work its way back northward, her other hand still holding my wrists bound securely above my head. Her grip was just strong enough to prevent me from freeing myself but gentle enough not to hurt me as her tongue teased my nipple, slowly circling for a time before she caught the hardened proof of my desire in her teeth. Again, that shocking and intense mix of pleasure and pain caused my brain to short circuit as I tried to gasp and squeak at the same time.

Melody rolled her tongue over and around my nipple as her teeth held it fast, even as that trailing finger found the other nipple and rubbed it in firm hard circles. I thought that I was going to explode with orgasm right there but as she had me on the edge her mouth went from biting and tongue teasing to gently suckling. She kept me on the edge, switching back and forth and never letting me go over. My every nerve was on fire, becoming more and more sensitive to even the slightest touch or sensation as she kept me hovering at the edge of climax.

I whimpered in raw need and I felt her finger trail southward again, even as her teeth and tongue renewed their assault. “Aaaaah!” I wasn’t quite sure it if was a scream or a moan but the sound that escaped my lips was prompted by the ecstasy as I felt her fingers teasing the folds between my legs. I bit my lip against the need for release and Melody caught my look of desperation as she looked up from the oral attention that she continued to assail my right nipple with.

The resulting giggle sent the strangest sensations through my near-painfully sensitive nipple before she released it and grinned up at me. “That needy pout is so cute, Babe. Would you like me to let you climax? You only need to ask nicely.”

I was half tempted to tell her just how demonic she was being by keeping me on the edge like she was but then she might stop. This was the most intense experience that I had ever had in my life and I hadn’t even orgasmed yet. Okay yeah, I could ask nicely, but she was going to get a bit of sass too. I allowed my desperation to show and let my lip quiver just a bit as I asked in a gasping breathy voice, “May I please climax, oh mighty infernal Mistress?” What can I say, I’m a brat and she was the one who had taken charge of things, not that I was complaining about that because holy shit this was amazing.

Melody let out an adorable giggle snort before trying to reclaim some of her seriousness. “I guess that I can allow it since you’re being such a good girl and asking nicely.”

Damn, it just hits me right in my core when she calls me a good girl. Speaking of hitting me in my core, that was when she decided to slip a pair of fingers inside me with a wet and somewhat dirty sound that turned me on even more. I moaned in pleasure from the intrusion. I hadn’t really tried anything penetrative yet in my attempts at self-pleasure, I thought that it might feel strange and unnatural, but boy was I wrong. It felt amazing, I felt filled and complete in a way that I had never experienced before as she held those fingers inside me for a moment to let me get used to the sensation.

She didn’t hold them still for long. Soon she was pumping them in and out of me and every time she plunged deeper I regained a little more of the lost ground on my path to climax. Her mouth was on my nipple once again, biting and pulling as her tongue flicked over it with each plunge of her fingers. I was hyper-stimulated and each sensation was driving me wild by the time she plunged in as deep as her fingers could go, her thumb rubbing against my engorged clit, even as she bit down hard on my nipple once again.

The combined sensations sent me over the edge and I screamed out in an explosion of agonizing ecstasy as my back arched so that only my shoulders and heels were touching the bed. It felt like I had fallen into the sun; Incandescent light infused my mind behind my closed eyes and I was filled with a white fire that burned outward from my core and through my entire body in wave after incredible wave, consuming all conscious thought and leaving only an all-encompassing sensation of joy and completion behind. And then, just as my mind was returning to some semblance of consciousness, Melody sent me over the edge once more.

I don’t know how many times that Melody made me orgasm but when she was finished I was a quivering puddle of Nymph that had somehow ended up wrapped up lovingly in her arms. As I laid there flushed, trembling, and trying to recover in both mind and body from the overload of pleasure and the sensations that even just her stroking my hair produced, I nuzzled happily against my lover. The girl that I had to admit that I was in love with.

I felt so satisfied, for the first time since I had Manifested, though from what Mom had said I’d probably be horny again by tomorrow morning, at the latest. I don’t think I could have managed anymore if I tried right then though, with the way my nerves were so sensitive. The merest of touches to my most sensitive areas was engendering a painful type of pleasure. I may have discovered that I liked a bit of pain mixed with pleasure, at least when it was Melody giving it, but right then it was just a bit too much for me.

Melody seemed to sense that I was once again coherent, or at least on my way, and tenderly kissed my forehead. “Satisfied, Babe?”

“Hmmm…. Yeah,” I murmured in reply still trying to find my way out of the warm fuzzies of post-orgasm bliss. “Your turn?” I asked dreamily. My entire body may have felt like jelly at the moment but I wanted to make her as happy and satisfied as she had made me.

She made no attempt to move but just continued to hold me and gently stroke my hair, the vibration of her giggles causing pleasant sensations in my over-stimulated body. “No, Babe. You can barely move right now; we’ll pick things back up later tonight. You probably need to eat something before we start anything else anyway, you burned a lot of energy and you’re going to need it when we do get back to this. We’ve actually been in here a while so we should get dressed and go see what the others are up to in a bit. Right now though, I just want to hold you and cuddle for a bit.”

I happily snuggled closer murmuring, softly, “Mmmm… I love you.” It took a second, but as soon as my brain parsed what my mouth had said my eyes went wide and my heart just about leaped out of my chest. “Shit! How could I be so stupid?! We’ve known each other, what a week? It’s too soon to say something like that, I probably shouldn’t even be thinking it!” I was actually trembling again, this time with fear.

“Calm down, Babe.” For just an instant her fingers had stopped stroking my hair and I was terrified of what she might say before they picked right up where they left off and she spoke those words. It took a moment but I managed to slow my rapid breathing and stop shaking. She was smiling as she leaned over and kissed me lovingly and whispered tenderly in my ear. “Shhhh, there’s my good girl. I love you too, I know it seems weird, like we should spend more time together, but I fell in love with you that first moment that I saw you, and every moment that I spend with you just makes me fall deeper. You’re beautiful, sweet, funny, caring, and a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for. What’s not to love?”

“Y…you’re okay with it then?” I whispered back once I felt that I could speak again.

“More than okay,” she said, kissing me again. “I did say the same thing earlier when things were getting hot. I’m not perfect, and I know that we will never have the conventional monogamous relationship but I love you and I want to give this thing between us a go. I’d rent a U-Haul but we already sorta live together.”

“Hmm? U-Haul?” I asked, my brain still a bit fuzzy.

“It’s kinda a lesbian stereotype,” she admitted with a chuckle as I nuzzled closer. “It refers to when a lesbian couple move in together without knowing each other very long. If we’re going to play to the stereotypes though, maybe I should get more flannel in my wardrobe. It gets cold here.”

I giggled and then sighed happily. I didn’t care what people thought, all that mattered was that we were both happy together and I felt that I had a shot at that with Melody. We cuddled for a short while longer before I noticed that we had left the others in the common room two hours earlier. “Hmmm, shouldn’t Sorcha have been put down for a nap by now? I kinda expected Selina to notice I was gone by now.”

“Let’s get up and check on her then if you’re worried,” Melody offered as she stretched.

It took us a few minutes but we cleaned up a bit in the bathroom and then got dressed to go out and rejoin the others in the common room. When we arrived, Jess and Carmen were watching a movie with the volume down low and both Selina and Sorcha were sleeping on the other couch. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised since she didn’t get very much sleep the night before and her whole life had been turned upside down in the past day, hopefully in a good way for the most part.

I pressed my finger to my lips and pulled Melody over to the couch so we could join my sister and Carmen in watching the movie. “Shhh, we’ll let her sleep a while longer, she’s been through a lot in the past day.”

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 22 of A Cold Fey In Hell. My arm is still not at 100% but I'm posting another chapter of Cold Fey this week. I also posted something new on my Patreon page. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 22: Momma's Girl

During the time that Selina napped with Sorcha, Melody and I watched a movie with Jess and Carmen and my sister gave me a few more brief girl lessons. We allowed the pair to sleep for an hour before waking them, so they didn’t sleep too much that they wouldn’t be able to do so when they went to bed that night, and most of the remainder of the day was spent just hanging out. While it seemed that Selina was still a ‘Momma’s girl’ she did seem to relax with the others and her new environment a little more as the evening progressed.

We tried to ease Selina into her new living situation but there were little things that made it clear just how difficult her past had been. She all but scrambled for a place to hide when a scene in a movie we were watching inched uncomfortably close to child abuse and triggered her. I held her and whispered that she was safe and I was there for a while to reassure her that everything was okay while Carmen switched the channel to one that played only cartoons since it was something we could all watch, and it made Sorcha happy too.

Just before dinner, Aislinn had finished her work with the Brownies Jack and Jill for the day. The club had been open downstairs for an hour and a half by that point and they had spent the past two hours tidying up all the dorm rooms and doing laundry. Dr. Diaz got home from working at her practice at around the same time and both mothers settled in with us for the evening to spend some time with their respective daughters and us other kids. From my time living above the club so far, I liked and respected both of them, they could be damn stern and scary sometimes but they obviously adored their girls and wanted them safe and happy.

When we all started getting hungry for dinner, the pair took our orders to get our meals from the kitchen down in the club. Poor Selina was like a deer in the headlights as she first looked to me for permission and then had trouble figuring out what she wanted. She was so used to eating whatever she could scrounge up that choosing what she actually wanted to eat seemed a foreign concept to her.

Dr. Diaz, bless her heart, settled that by suggesting that Selina order the appetizer platter so she could try a bunch of different things to find out what her new taste buds liked. We already knew from breakfast and lunch that, like most Fey, she couldn’t stomach much meat so it seemed like a good idea. It turned out well too, as Selina eagerly tried everything on the platter. She couldn’t finish it all, but between Carmen, Melody, Sorcha, and me needing to eat more for our Salamanders, we were able to help her out.

After dinner, Sorcha was snuggled up in her mother’s lap as the elder Selkie brushed and braided her hair, a little bit of mother-daughter time as they watched cartoons. After seeing Selina watching the pair with need-filled eyes, I ran to my room to grab my brush and a hair tie so I could do the same for her. While she sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the couch, I sat behind her and carefully brushed her hair and then used my limited experience with Jessica’s hair and my nimble fingers to carefully braid it.

She seemed so happy as I worked, except for a few times when I had caught a tangle and pulled a bit too hard. I could feel her flinching and stiffening before taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. That was more than just flinching from a yanked tangle and I wasn’t the only one to notice it, but none of us wanted to make her talk about her past since it seemed that the only parts of it that were still intact in her mind were the traumatic ones. So, each time it happened I apologized in as soothing a voice as I could. I had asked the first time if she wanted me to stop but she quickly shook her head and said, “No,” so desperately that I just had to hold her from behind for a moment and assure her that she was safe with us and everything would be alright.

By nine-thirty Lou had emerged from playing videogames in his room to try to be social and Selina was practically curled up in my lap as she and Sorcha were engrossed in the cartoons playing on the television. Aislinn had said that Sorcha could stay up until ten to watch along with her and, from the way that Selina was starting to droop in front of me, I was probably going to get her in bed at the same time. Despite having a nap, she hadn’t gotten very much sleep the night before and she had gone through a pretty big change when I ‘Manifested’ her. I couldn’t even be sure when the last time she had gotten a full night of sleep was, with her living on the streets.

To my surprise, at quarter to ten, Cindy came upstairs with a covered tray that was producing a tantalizing scent. ~It’s a slow night, so I thought that I would make you kids a treat and spend my break up here,~ the Mermaid told us as she placed the tray on one of the tables and went into the fridge to produce a large jug of milk. ~Lou, could you be a dear and fetch some glasses from the cupboard?~

I had a hard time not laughing at the thought of the werewolf ‘fetching’ and soon all of us ‘kids’ were at the table with glasses of milk and a platter of what turned out to be chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven. They were warm, gooey, and so delicious and once Selina had taken her first bite she burst into tears. “Is everything okay, Selina?” Dr. Diaz asked gently before I could manage to swallow my mouthful of goodness enough to do it myself.

For a moment she could only nod as she brushed away tears with her sleeve. “I… I just never…” I had thought she was going to say something about never thinking she was going to be welcome or have a family, and I figured that was probably part of it too as she finished, “I’ve… never had homemade cookies before.”

While I wasn’t terribly surprised by her admission, I was definitely pissed off. Never had homemade cookies? Sure, Dad wasn’t Betty Crocker or anything, and his job kept him busy, but even he had tried to do things like that for me and Jess when he had the time. “You have as many as you like,” I told her gently as I got out of my chair to wrap her in a hug. “In ten minutes it’s time for bed though, you have a busy day tomorrow. I’ll be right back, I need to talk to Cindy, Dr. Diaz, and Aislinn for a minute.”

I made my way over to the couches with Carmen’s mother where Cindy was having a quick coffee and rather than chatting with the other women they were all watching Selina with a sad look as she savored each bite of her cookie as if it might be her last. ~That poor girl, she’s had it so hard. It’s all over her surface thoughts and projecting every time that she gets surprised by something. I’m glad that you found her and brought her here, Crystal. She needs a loving family more than anyone I’ve ever seen,~ the Mermaid sent me with a sad shake of her head as I approached.

“Yeah, I almost want to find the jackasses who put her through all of that and change them too. Something that reflects the monsters they are inside.” I took a deep breath to calm myself and got to the point, speaking in a conspiratorial whisper, “I was wondering how you are with cakes, Cindy? Yesterday was technically Selina’s ‘birth’ day and I’m willing to bet that she’s never been able to celebrate it without being pressured to be someone she wasn’t so I want to do something for her tomorrow when we get back from shopping. I’d pay you, of course…”

~No you won’t,~ the Mermaid countered quickly. ~I wouldn’t hear of it, that girl is family and so are you, Crystal. Brock and I make cakes for everyone’s birthdays and I think this is a great idea. She’s getting the biggest and girliest cake that I can come up with.~

“Aye, and I think we have some streamers, balloons, and some other decorations left from Sorcha and Carmen’s last birthday parties. Jill, Jack, and I can put off cleaning up here after we’re done downstairs for long enough to decorate the common room. It wouldn’t be the first time,” Aislinn offered in a low voice.

“I’ll talk to Carmen before bed and maybe while you and your mother take Selina shopping she, and the other kids can go get her some stuffed animals or things for her room as birthday gifts.” Dr. Diaz added in a whisper of her own.

“Good idea, Isabella,” Aislinn agreed with a quick nod. “I’ll see if there’s anything that Sorcha might want to get her when I tuck her in.”

“Thanks, everyone, you’re all awesome,” I said before hugging the three in turn and going back to the table with Selina and the others. Those cookies were so good and just perfect with that glass of milk, but what really warmed me up inside was how happy Selina looked as she enjoyed each bite and started to relax a bit around other members of our strange family. Aislinn and I gave her and Sorcha an extra ten minutes before leading the pair to their rooms to wash up for bed.

Once Selina was done washing up as best she could, I had her get undressed and into bed and then tenderly tucked her in and kissed her on the forehead. “Good night, Selina. I love you, Sweetie. I’m just down the hall if you need me but remember that you’ll need to put on the nightshirt at the end of your bed if you leave your room, even if it’s just to see me. Oh, and try to knock first and give me a moment to answer, in case I’m not asleep and busy with something.”

“Good night, Momma, I love you.” She got up and half-crushed me in a hug before settling back into the blankets and closing her eyes.

I awoke the next morning wrapped up in Melody’s arms while Selina was snuggled up close to me on the other side in the sleep shirt that Jess had loaned her from her old clothes. Melody and I had returned to my room after Selina was asleep in her bed so that I could return the favor from earlier in the day. I was inexperienced in pleasing a woman but Melody had been loving and patient and I was a quick study, especially since I wanted to make her feel like she had made me feel earlier. I loved her and I found that her pleasure was as important to me as my own when we were together.

I had managed to bring Melody to orgasm several times once I became comfortable and more confident in what I was doing and she had recovered enough before we fell asleep to give me a few of my own so that I could fall asleep satisfied. I smiled at the memory as I snuggled into her arms and reached out to gently stroke Selina’s cheek. She had come in sometime in the middle of the night after another nightmare and her knock hadn’t woken me or Melody but I had stirred as she attempted to join me in the bed and then froze in uncertainty when she noticed Melody with me.

Melody had stirred as well and poor Selina wasn’t sure what to do. She needed her momma but at the same time seeing me in bed with someone, and the realization of what we were probably doing before falling asleep had her frozen. She may have seemed somewhat childlike as she tried to find herself and adjust to her new form and situation, and maybe a bit naïve at times about some things, but she was thirteen and she wasn’t stupid.

So, Melody and I explained our budding relationship to her and assured her that it was okay to come and snuggle if she needed me, so long as she was wearing something so it wouldn’t get weird(er). She was okay with that, probably for the same reason I was, because as much as I hated wearing clothes the thought of being naked around my Mom (or new daughter) while doing something as intimate as cuddling made me feel awkward and a bit squicky. It was bizarre enough having a hot mother who looked close to my age without adding the whole naked snuggling thing and I felt similar about Selina since we had imprinted.

Had it been anyone else sharing my bed I probably would have gotten out of bed to throw something on, taken Selina back to her room, and comforted her there until she fell back to sleep but this was Melody and I was quickly coming to believe that we were soulmates. Selina would need to get used to the idea that Melody might just end up being another parent-type figure in her life. So, I just made sure that Melody and I were properly covered with my sheets and that Selina laid atop those sheets still in her sleepshirt when she curled up with us under the comforter. Us trying to get dressed with her in the room would have just made things uncomfortable, especially for Selina and Melody, given the situation.

Melody had rolled over to turn off the alarm and, noticing that Selina was still asleep she gave me a quick kiss and a whispered, “I love you,” before throwing on her shirt and panties, snatching up the rest of her clothes, and dashing for the door and across the hall to her room after closing the door behind her.

I smiled as I watched her leave and then turned to gently shake Selina’s shoulder. “Selina, it’s time to get up. We have a lot to do today. You need to get showered and dressed.” It took a few minutes but I finally got the sleepyhead up and moving and then once she was on her way back to her room to shower I left for my own.

I was a little horny, but not near as bad as I had been recently after last night. My showerhead helped to relieve that dull aching emptiness as I showered and by the time I was cleaned, dressed, and ready to head downstairs for breakfast I was feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Mom and Pandora had already headed downstairs with most of the others, and Melody was waiting for me in the hall but Jessica and Selina were in the latter’s room. My sister had seemingly helped Selina with choosing some of her old clothes to wear and was standing behind her and blow-drying her hair when I looked in.

“Thank you... umm… Aunt Jess,” Selina said a little nervously when my sister was done drying and then braiding her hair.

“No problem, Kiddo. Now let’s go have some breakfast,” my sister said with a grin as she gently pushed the Astrae out into the hall.

Jimmy arrived about halfway through breakfast, a doorbell announcing the arrival of a visitor outside of business hours. Once he was let in, Jimmy was ushered to a table to have breakfast with us, and with the way he just went along with it, I assumed that this wasn’t the first time he had visited and had a meal in the club during off-hours. He was certainly welcomed eagerly enough. After breakfast though, Mom led us to a clean and unoccupied booth so we could have some privacy while Jimmy did his thing. He had brought along a large briefcase and his laptop case and assured me that it had everything that he would need for a home intake.

Selina was nervous once we explained who he was and what his job was and clutched my arm, her eyes wide with fear, as if afraid that he was going to take her away from me and send her back to her human parents. Jimmy seemed to know better than to reach out for her and kept his tone even and calm as he said, “It’s okay, Selina. I’ve been told about your somewhat unorthodox Manifestation and relationship with Crystal. I’m only here to make sure that you have a legal identity, can get the resources that you might need, and be certain that Crystal is prepared for everything that raising you entails.”

“You mean…” Selina began hesitantly.

“Yes, you can stay here with her,” he finished, offering a reassuring smile. “This is an unusual situation but Crystal will be eighteen in a few weeks. So, as long as she is willing, mature, and financially and mentally prepared to care for you then I have no problem pre-dating some adoption and custody papers for her birthday and placing you legally in Tiffani’s care until then. I know these people, and they’re going to make sure that both you and Crystal get the care you need, we just need to work out the details and a cover story that looks good on paper.”

“I’m not going to abandon her,” I told Jimmy seriously. I’ve got over eighty thousand in the bank and I’ll have a job after my birthday, I hope.”

Mom quickly nodded. “Crystal will be ready to start working at the club by then. Part-time shifts until she finishes school to ease her in and so she’ll have time for homework and personal time. When she’s done school she can work full time and she’ll have the same deal that all of our girls have: Seventy percent of all of her tips and ‘service’ fees and room and board for her and any dependents.”

Damn, I didn’t know much about the adult entertainment industry, but that sounded like a pretty sweet deal to me, especially when it included seldom having to wear clothes and all the sex a Nymph could want. No wonder Rhissa could afford that nice little convertible of hers. I was still mentally seeing dollar signs when Jimmy asked, “And what do you plan to do about school for Selina?”

“We plan to home school her until next year when she can start high school in September. She needs time to adjust to her new self and Crystal should be able to afford to send her to St. Michelle’s with the money she’ll likely be making here,” my mother explained.

Jimmy nodded thoughtfully for a moment before speaking. “That would be satisfactory. I think we can stick close to the truth on her background by filing an incident report. We’ll say she’s a member of a newly discovered species and not much is known about her kind yet. She was being attacked when Crystal and the others ran across her and she suffered memory loss as a result and seemingly imprinted on Crystal in her confusion. Carmilla ‘happened upon you’ and witnessed everything so she could sign as a witness. I don’t think anyone would dare go against her word on the matter, so then I can file the documents and applications for the intake and new identity at the same time.”

I liked this plan and smiled in relief. “Thanks, Jimmy, you’re a lifesaver.”

“Don’t thank me yet, Crystal. You and I have a lot of paperwork to do, consider it penance for your little mistake and try to be more careful next time,” he replied. His tone was good-humored and kindly though. I liked Jimmy and as sexy as he was, if he wasn’t gay and I wasn’t still technically underage, I would fuck his brains out in a heartbeat.

We spent the next hour and a bit filling out and signing paperwork, my hand was so cramped by the time we were done and Carmilla and Mom had signed their parts as well. T’s had been crossed and I’s dotted though and everything was ready to go. The hardest part had been the paperwork for the PDA to apply for the new identity stuff for her, like a birth certificate and social insurance number and all that. The PDA registration card was simple by comparison; Jimmy only needed to take a picture and add our address and the details we had come up with and he promised to drop that off for her tonight at the club after work.

So, Selina Tiffani Cummings was now a real girl with a birthday of December 21st since she was technically a Jane Doe with no memory and that was the day we had come across her. The paperwork marked her as thirteen years old and my Mom as her guardian until I was eighteen and could be formally recognized. To keep in theme with our story, a lot of her information such as her abilities, dietary requirements, and such were marked as either n/a or unknown though we did use the species name that I had come up with and made a note on it. I guess that was my right since I was the one to formally ‘discover’ her.

Selina clung to me in happy excitement as Jimmy told us that once he filed the papers at the office in an hour or two it would all be official. I wasn’t really sure if I should be happy or scared as it sunk in that she was staying and I was going to be her parent. I was happy for her and I couldn’t help but care about her but I was so scared of failing her. Once we had thanked Jimmy and saw him off at the door, Mom sent us upstairs to our rooms to get ready for our shopping trip.

After pulling on my leather jacket and favorite boots and casting the illusion over the pointy ends of my ears, I stepped out into the hallway and made my way to the common room where Jess, Melody, Carmen, and Lou were waiting with a glamoured Selina and trying to let her get to know them all a bit better. Selina was wearing a pair of my sister’s old fleece-lined boots and a poofy pink jacket over her clothes for cold weather along with a scarf, a warm knit beanie to keep her ears warm, and there was a pair of pink and white gloves in her pocket.

My Astrae daughter, damn that was going to be hard to get used to mentally, looked me over with some confusion when I arrived. “Momma, Nana Tiffani said that it’s really cold outside. Aren’t you gonna be cold when we’re outside the car?”

“I’m a Snow Nymph, Selina, I don’t get cold,” I offered with a shrug. Other than my unzipped leather jacket and boots, my outerwear only really consisted of a pair of thin leggings with a slight silvery sheen to them and a powder blue peasant blouse with white snowflake patterns. The latter showed quite a bit of cleavage, was cinched tightly at the waist with white laces, and flared outward in loose pleats over my hips. “I should probably zip up my jacket and get some gloves and stuff for camouflage while we’re out though.”

“Yeah, you’re going to get a lot of attention out there if you don’t at least look like you’re trying to bundle up against the cold when you’re outside,” Lou agreed while giving me an appreciative once over with his eyes.

I made a mental note to get some cold weather camouflage while we were out and to try to get my Christmas gifts for my sister, Melody, and Selina if I could as well. Not to mention a birthday gift for Selina’s surprise party later in the afternoon. Melody chose that moment to reveal, “Jess and I are probably going to hang out and finish our Christmas shopping with Lou and Carmen while you girls are off doing your thing. Lou managed to convince Genevieve to let us take her car.” I smiled as I realized that Carmen and Melody must have let Lou and Jess in on the plan, and they did need to finish their shopping anyway.

“Yeah, Mom was cool about it,” Lou told me with a lupine grin. “She wants me to try to get to know you all a bit better since you’re living here now and since you and I have the car thing in common, she figured that this would be a good chance to get to know Jessica and Melody better too.”

“What about Sorcha?” I asked, feeling bad that we were all going off and leaving out the little Selkie.

“Rhissa and Krysti are going to keep her entertained and Krysti is going to see if she can start teaching Sorcha to use the ability that Ashe sensed in her. Krysti should be able to help since Kitsune are as sensitive to and talented with Divine magic as you Muses are. And since Kitsunes love to play games, she may be able to teach Sorcha and entertain her at the same time,” Carmen explained. Then she added with a subtle wink, “I think they were going to take her to that big toy store that she likes too if she behaves.”

“Okay, well you four be careful, I know that Melody will protect you if something happens but Jess is probably gonna get a lot of attention going around looking like me.” I couldn’t help but feel a little worried for them all. Melody was tough and street smart but she was still learning to do the bodyguard thing without resorting to brute strength or blowing shit up with that enormous hand cannon of hers.

“Don’t worry, Sis, I’ll be going low-profile,” my sister promised. “I’m going to make myself look as average as I can manage and I’ll wear some of my old stuff. With a more subdued look and some baggy winter clothes, I should blend right in. Speaking of, we should all get ready to go. Have fun with Mom and my new niece, Sis.”

Slightly less worried, I nodded and led Selina to the elevator so we could head down to the garage where Mom, Aunt Merry, and Annika were waiting for us. Mom had dispelled the illusion that made her hair appear aquamarine and was wearing an illusion to make her ears look normal. With that done Mom, Selina, and I looked similar enough to be sisters since Mom looked around twenty-ish, I appeared around sixteen or maybe seventeen, and Selina looked like a tween, though one who had just hit puberty in a big way.

It was a little weird if I’m being honest, but such is life when you’re a Fey or one of their close cousin species like we were. Krysti was right, people never really consider the bad things about eternal youth. Looking eternally young could make things extremely awkweird for your kids, for one thing. It was kind of weird for me to call Tiffani Mom sometimes because she didn’t look all that much older than me. I imagined that it could be just as weird for her too, and I was getting a preview of that with Selina calling me ‘Momma’ all of the time.

I was going to have to remember to call Mom Tiffani while we were out today and before we left I was sure to tell Selina to call me Crystal while we were out among the normies. She looked a bit uncertain about it, her lip quivering and her eyes watering a bit and I once again cursed her human parents for her fear of rejection. I knew that that was her real problem, she wasn’t stupid since she had picked up Aunt Merry’s lessons quick enough and had shown herself to be observant in other ways. I just needed to be gentle with her while I helped her to build herself and her confidence up a bit.

I tried to give her a reassuring smile and quietly assured her, “You can still call me Momma while we were at home, on the phone, or not surrounded by normies if that’s what makes you comfortable, Sweetie. We need to keep a low profile when in non-Paranormal public places. We look too close in age for normies to think I’m anything more than an older sister. It’s the same with Mom, so we’ll need to call her Tiffani as well. If we’re not careful then people could start to suspect we’re not normal and we could all be in danger. None of us want to put you in danger, Selina.”

“O-Okay, Momma,” she replied before frowning and looking down at her feet. “Sorry, I’ll try harder…”

Mom cupped Selina’s chin in her hand and gently lifted it so that she was looking at us. “If you are a Fey offshoot as we suspect then you are likely as bound to the truth as the rest of us, Selina. You cannot lie directly so you might have to think in selective truths while we are out. I know that you see Crystal as your mother, that is your truth, and it is likely making it difficult for you to call her anything else but her name is Crystal. That is true as well, so you will just be using her name instead of the title that connects you.”

“You may be required to speak the truth, but you are not required to speak, young one. If anyone asks you something and you are uncertain about how to answer without revealing something best-kept secret, just remain silent and one of us will speak for you,” Aunt Merry quickly added. “I will help to teach you more on using selective truths at another time but for today that should suffice.”

Selina nodded slowly, a determined expression scrunching up her young face as she committed all of the advice to memory. With that brief lesson concluded, we were as ready to go as we were going to get. I had been looking forward to taking the Charger but we ended up taking the club’s truck instead since Annika would have been pretty cramped in my car. Hell, at almost seven feet tall she barely had room in the driver’s seat of the truck. Yeah, she was driving and Aunt Merry sat in the front on the passenger’s side while Mom, Selina, and I all sat in the back. Apparently, our pair of bodyguards thought that it was safer that way. Oh well, at least we were on our way.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 23 of A Cold Fey In Hell. My arm is still not at 100% but I don't have to keep it in the sling all the time and should be fully healed soon. I also posted something new on my Patreon page. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 23: Welcome Party

It was close to ten-thirty by the time we got to the mall, which meant that we had roughly five hours to get Selina all of the necessities and for me to try and sneak in some ninja-shopping for her birthday gift and a few things for Christmas. That last part was actually surprisingly easy. Mom had decided that since Selina’s hair was a bit of an uneven mess from her time living on the streets and then ‘Manifesting’ that our first stop should be at Shear Bliss to get my new daughter a haircut.

I suggested to Mom that Selina get the whole experience by getting her nails done as well and maybe her ears pierced too and paid Heather for everything upfront. It would give me a little extra time to do what I needed to, I had noticed that Selina’s ears weren’t pierced yet, and I doubted that she had ever had the opportunity to get a manicure or pedicure. Selina looked like she was in a dream and afraid that she would wake up as we discussed it after briefly giving Heather the ‘official’ story about my new daughter.

Once Selina was in Heather’s capable hands with her glamour temporarily dropped in the privacy of the salon and the Glaistig was fussing over the ‘poor wee lass’, I was able to slip away with Annika by my side to grab what I wanted. It was a good thing that I knew what I was looking for since I expected that we would only have an hour and a half or so for my bit of secret shopping before we were supposed to meet Mom, Aunt Merry, and Selina at the food court once Heather was done with the Astrae. The stores that I needed to go to thankfully weren’t that far apart and with a very intimidating Amazon at my side glaring at anyone who tried to get too close, we were able to get the gifts fairly quickly.

For Jessica’s Christmas gift, I got a gold locket that would go well with the charm bracelet that Dad had gotten her for our birthday. It was one of those lockets that you could open up and place a picture inside and I was hoping that we could get a good picture of us together in twin-mode for that. I also saw a pair of delicate drop earrings with butterflies at the ends made from gold and tiny blue rhinestones that I thought would be nice for Selina’s birthday gift. They were nothing too amazing but they would suit my new daughter and I thought that her first earrings other than the starter studs should be from me. I had something else planned for her Christmas gift and planned to get that later on in the shopping trip.

As for Melody’s Christmas gift, I talked to someone at the bookstore a few stores down and was able to get something that would hopefully make my girlfriend happy. I got her a beyond-the-basics package that would help her to expand her skills with Cantonese. It included both audio and visual lessons and an English-Cantonese dictionary.

Melody had mentioned wanting to learn more even though she was technically bilingual already and the salesperson said that the beyond-the-basics pack would be good for that. They were meant for people like Melody who had a good grasp of the language for everyday use but wanted to learn more. It also gave some background on the history of the language, which I thought she would like.

After the bookstore, Annika and I made our way to an electronics store as the Amazon and I talked about what kinds of things Selina might need beyond just clothes and other basic items. I liked Annika, she was a bit gruff and serious, but only because she took my safety very seriously and was trying to stay alert for danger. Still, she and my Aunt Merry seemed to be good friends and she had a few interesting stories to tell about some of their misadventures.

The electronics store was mostly for me since I had been wanting to get my laptop replaced and hadn’t had the chance until now. I did make the salesman very happy though since not only did he literally beat out two other guys in a race to serve me but also scored a hefty commission. I got the new laptop that I wanted as well as a pair of nice tablets and a fairly basic smartphone. The phone and one of the tablets were for Selina since Annika and I figured that she would need a phone and the tablet was going to be her Christmas gift.

I wasn’t going to bother trying to wrap gifts myself and make a mess of them like I usually did so we stopped off at a gift wrapping station for that. Thankfully they were much better at it than I would have been, not to mention quicker. We had actually done the same when Melody, Jess, and I went on our Christmas shopping date with Rose and it may have been a bit of an extra cost but the proceeds went to charity, they did a much better job than I would have, and it saved us from people accidentally catching a look at their gifts while I procrastinated on wrapping them myself. Besides, I needed the birthday gift wrapped before we got home.

Somehow we had managed to get to the food court before the others but we didn’t have to wait very long before Mom, Aunt Merry, and Selina joined us. I couldn’t really see any difference in the latter with her glamour on, except for the studs in her ears and evened-out hair, but she was smiling and seemingly happy and that was the important thing. Still, I asked, “What did you think of your first trip to Shear Bliss, Selina?”

“It was amazing, M… Crystal,” she started to gush before quickly correcting herself and looking at the floor. “Are… you sure it was okay? It was probably kinda expensive.”

“If it made you feel better about yourself then it was worth it,” I replied, cupping her chin and raising it so I could look her in the eyes. “I have a good nest egg in the bank right now and doing a few nice things for you and getting you some clothes and all the things that a girl your age should have isn’t going to do too much damage to that. You’re my responsibility and I want you to be happy, that will make me happy. Now let’s eat some lunch so we can do some shopping for you.”

We had a quick lunch of sushi before getting to the serious shopping. I had never had sushi before and neither had Selina but Mom and Aunt Merry convinced us to try it. Yeah, it’s a little weird for someone who grew up in Vancouver to never have tried sushi before, but I was never really the adventurous type before. Now my whole life is one big and strange adventure so eating something new and unfamiliar was fairly tame by comparison. Who would have guessed, but I actually really liked it and so did Selina. Maybe it’s a Fey thing, I figured that I’d have to get Jess to try it and see what she thinks.

After lunch, we only had three hours to get Selina enough clothes to last a while plus all of the other necessities, so things were a bit rushed. Selina didn’t really speak much unless we were in one of the stores for Paranormals and I guessed that that was because she didn’t want to slip up and call me Momma by mistake. We visited many of the same stores that Rhissa had taken me, Melody, and Jessica to on our big shopping trip and thankfully most of them were on friendly terms with my mom and eager to help when Mom explained to them about her new granddaughter’s clothing situation.

Mom took charge at the drugstore, quickly filling our cart with the various personal care and feminine hygiene products that Selina would need. I was glad she did since I was still learning about all of that stuff and wouldn’t have been sure what to get other than basics like a toothbrush and toothpaste, let alone what was safe for us Fey. Thanks to Jess, I had a better idea about all that than when I had first Manifested, but I couldn’t remember half of the brand names that she had bought for me, let alone what products they were attached to.

Just like the first big shopping trip, we finished up by stopping at Rabbit’s Foot. It seemed that they didn’t have any customers at the moment because Rose and her aunt jumped on us almost as soon as we were in the door. “Tiff! It’s good to see you again, and you somehow managed to get Merry and Annika to join you on a shopping trip, what brought on this miracle?” Sandra teased. “Hello, Crystal, it’s good to see you again so soon, as well.”

“Tiff and Crystal both have a knack for finding trouble, I think it might be genetic,” Annika said in a teasing tone of her own, making both me and my mom blush. “Merry and I felt better accompanying them on this trip to keep them safe, you never know when there could be Snatchers or worse about.”

Sandra nodded, a serious look passing over her pretty face. “Sad, but true. I’m not going to stop worrying about Rose here going out on her own until she’s good enough at shapeshifting to completely hide her non-human features. Maybe not even then, Snatchers have been known to go after particularly pretty normie girls too, after all. Regardless, it’s good to see all of you again. Rose, I’d like you to meet Merriwynd, Annika, and Crystal’s mother, Tiffani. Oh! And who is this?” The last was asked as she caught sight of Selina half-hiding behind me.

“This is my new granddaughter, Selina. Selina, this is Sandra and her niece Rose,” my mother offered by way of introduction.

“Granddaughter? Surely she’s not…” Sandra started to say, her eyes settling on me and the girl peeking out nervously from behind me.

“It’s… umm… complicated, but yeah. The PDA put her in Mom’s care until I’m officially eighteen though.” I replied with another blush before pulling Selina out from behind me. “Selina, it’s okay. Sandy and Rose are really nice, well Rose is once you get to know her anyway. She’s sorta a friend and she and your Aunt Jess are… close.” Wow, the relationships in my life are complicated and hard to explain.

You could see the family resemblance between Rose and Sandra as Rose gave me the same look that her aunt gave my mom. A look that said, “You’re giving me the whole story, ASAP.” Rose followed it with a lifted eyebrow as she smiled and said, “I thought that Jess was pulling my chain when she started talking about a new niece yesterday, I didn’t think you and Mel were that serious yet.”

I didn’t think my face could go a brighter red but I was to be surprised as I stammered, “Well… I…. we… ummm…”

“OMG! Okay, you’re totally giving me all the deets on both that and your new ‘daughter’ as soon as we all get together again,” Rose said with a predatory glint in her eye. Damn, I was glad the murder-bunny was at least on our side now. The gleam left her eye though as she turned to my daughter and offered surprisingly gently. “I’m gonna guess that this isn’t just a social visit though, so why don’t you tell me what kinds of shoes you need and we’ll get you hooked up.”

Rose was as good as her word. By that time, we only had about fifteen minutes before we would have to leave for home but she quickly got Selina’s size and then helped us to find her some sneakers, winter boots, and four other pairs of shoes for different occasions and styles in record time. I did ask her quietly about coming to celebrate Selina’s birthday with us while the Astrae was busy trying on a pair of canvas sneakers similar to the ones I had bought the other day, but Rose wasn’t getting off work until dinner time.

Selina had gone to wait outside the store with Mom and our bodyguards while I paid for her new footwear when Rose slipped me a fifty-dollar gift certificate for the store along with my receipt. “I talked to Aunt Sandy really quick while we looked for the ballet flats in Selina’s size. Tell her happy birthday for us, Elsa,” she teased with a wink.

“Thanks, Rose. You’re not bad, for a murder-bunny,” I shot back before giving her an only slightly awkward half-hug and heading out to join the others so we could head home.

On the way back to the club I gave Selina her new phone and helped her to get it set up and program the number for the club as well as Mom’s number, mine, Jessica’s, Melody’s, and Carmen’s to get her started. At first, she looked at the phone in disbelief, excited but almost like she was afraid that it was going to bite her. She had never had one of her own before and, while she knew the basics, I had to give her an introduction to the various features and programs. I also laid down the ground rules regarding the phone and explained her phone service plan and that she should plug the charger in beside her bed so she could charge it every night so she wouldn’t run out of juice.

We arrived home minutes before the club was due to open. Mom, Annika, and Aunt Merry poured out of the elevator to get to their positions for work as soon as the doors opened on the first floor while Selina and I rode up to the third-floor common room overloaded with bags. We were both a bit tired from all of our running around at the mall but Selina seemed happy and it was nice to see her smiling. I just hoped that everyone had been able to set things up in time for the party so we could give her something to really smile about.

As soon as we stepped out of the elevator a chorus of voices called out, “Surprise! Happy birthday, Selina!” Dr. Diaz, Jack, Jill, Aislinn, Cindy, Carmen, Melody, Jess, Lou, and Sorcha were all sitting there at the tables with a huge cake with pink icing, lavender butterflies, and ‘Happy Birthday Selina’ written across it. Poor Selina burst into tears and I had to take a few minutes calming her down. “B…but Momma… it’s not…” she said between sniffles as I held her.

“No, it’s not,” I agreed as I brushed her hair out of her eyes. “You were born two days ago, but it was a bit of a surprise so we couldn’t really throw you a party then, could we? I know that this is probably a bit much for you right now, but we all just wanted to show you that you have a family that loves you for who you are now, so this is only the first of many other birthday parties and other family celebrations that you’re going to be a part of.”

I guided her to the table with the cake on it and sat her down and she just sat there with wide teary eyes for a few minutes as she took it all in. There were pink and lavender streamers and balloons all over the common room and a big happy birthday banner with pink letters. The tables had been covered with Disney Princess-themed tablecloths, paper plates, and paper cups that looked like they may have been from Sorcha’s last birthday party. Aside from the massive chocolate cake, there were also four extra-large pizzas that looked fresh out of the oven; two vegetarians, one meat-lovers, and one seafood. Brock and Cindy had outdone themselves.

Sadly, not everyone could stay for the whole party. Cindy had to get back down to the kitchen now that the club was open but she was happy that she had gotten to see the look on Selina’s face. Aislinn, Jack, and Jill had to finish up cleaning the dorm rooms and a few other things, but they offered to take Selina’s things from the shopping trip to her room so she would be saved a trip when she should be enjoying her party. Everyone else would be staying though, and at least the four of them had managed to stay long enough to sing happy birthday and have a piece of cake with us.

Yeah, we ate cake before dinner but since this was Selina’s first birthday with us we all figured that it would be okay this once. The pizzas were amazing; I never knew that the club even had them on the menu but we all really enjoyed them. I managed to try a slice of each type, though I mostly stuck to the veggie and seafood ones since I can’t eat much meat. Finally, after we were all comfortably full from dinner, it was time for Selina to open her gifts.

She had been floored by the surprise of having a birthday party but the fact that people had cared enough to get her gifts when she’d only been with us less than two days had Selina in tears again. We had to give her enough time to calm down and she got super-huggy with me as I reassured her that this was real and not a dream, but soon we got to the gifts. We started with my gift and she carefully removed the paper and ribbons as if afraid to damage them. “It’s okay to just tear it off,” Lou attempted to assure her.

“Y-yeah, but this… this is my first… I wanna keep the wrapping to remember it,” Selina managed to get out between happy and tearful sniffles. When she had finally managed to unwrap the gift without damaging anything she set the wrapping aside and opened the small jewelry box to reveal the earrings and let out a gasp. “They’re so pretty, Momma.”

“Well, since you got your ears pierced today, I thought that you should have something nice to wear in them,” I offered as she closed the box and clutched it tightly as she glomped me.

Things went a bit faster after that as she eagerly tore open the remaining gifts with everyone’s encouragement to see what was inside. It was so nice seeing her starting to relax and feeling comfortable with everyone as things progressed. Aside from the gift certificate from Rose and Sandy, Selina had gotten gift cards for some of the stores was had gone to earlier from Mom, Annika, and Aunt Merry as well.

She also got a pair of stuffed animals for her room because every girl needs at least one, or at least that was what Jess told her. My sister had gotten her a white stuffed rabbit and Lou had gotten her a stuffed wolf. They were both a little on the nose but Selina seemed to appreciate that. I half-expected little Sorcha to have gotten her a stuffed white seal as the Selkie bounced with excitement and watched Selina open her gift.

It wasn’t a seal stuffy but it was a bit on the nose as well, just it was Selina’s nose this time. It was a Monster High doll called Luna Mothews along with various accessories and clothes. “I gotted you a dolly of your own so we can keep playin’ together,” the Selkie explained, practically vibrating in her seat from the excitement. “She gots wings jus’ like yours, ‘Lina!”

I wasn’t the only one smiling and trying to hold back a giggle at Sorcha’s excitement. She’s just so freaking adorable and Selina was flabbergasted for a moment before wrapping the little girl in a hug and blubbering, “Thanks, Sorcha. I always wanted dolls of my own… we can play together anytime you want to.”

After that, there were only Melody’s and Carmen’s gifts to open. Carmen had gotten Selina a pink glittery diary with a lock and key while my girlfriend had gotten her a fairly simple black leather purse. Melody shrugged when hers was opened and merely stated, “I figured that you’d need this for your new ID and other stuff. Every girl needs a good utility purse. It’s not nearly as big as mine but I doubt that you’ll be filling yours with big ass guns, bug detectors, tracking devices, and other shit like that.”

“Seriously, Mel, you carry the weirdest stuff in that purse. You need a purse of holding or something, that big-ass bag of yours isn’t exactly low-profile,” Carmen said with a smirk as she shook her head at Melody.

“I like to be prepared,” the half-Demon countered. “You know that it’s always the one time you don’t have something with you that you actually end up needing it, right? What if I run into something heavily armored and I don’t have high-explosive armor-piercing rounds?”

“Weirdo,” Carmen said with a laugh.

The rest of the evening was spent like that, everyone trying to make Selina feel welcome and a part of the family while we all chatted and generally got to know one another better. Aislinn and the Brownies came back to join us once they were finished with their housekeeping duties and Lana came upstairs for a short time to bring up the package that Jimmy had dropped off with Selina’s new PDA registration card and other necessary documents. She also brought a gift for Selina, a pretty pink satin nightgown that she had made for our newest family member.

As with the other gifts, that set Selina off crying again. She was happy and grateful, but she just had no clue how to take people being so kind to her. It was sad that she was so beaten down that such acts of kindness confused and even scared her to a point but at the same time, I could see her slowly starting to accept and embrace her new reality. She had a family now, and as the evening went on she was beginning to get more comfortable with the other members of that family besides me and that warmed my heart as much as seeing her happy did.

So, as I sat there snuggled up with Melody on the couch watching Selina and Sorcha playing together and watching cartoons I couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t just them either. It was Cinder being awake and us wrapping each other up in loving thoughts as Melody’s hand absently caressed my cheek. It was the adults talking about the plans for Christmas and looking forward to a couple of days of the club being closed so we could all spend the holidays together without worrying about work. It was being part of a family and knowing that we were all welcome in that family and loved for who we were.

It kind of made me miss Dad, but at the same time my heart was filled with warmth and I was glad to be here and have this new family. I was glad that we could all be that family for my new daughter as well. Selina needed it as much as Melody, Jess, and I had, probably even more.

So I just sat there and enjoyed the closeness and the company as I watched the girls play and listened to Carmen and Lou telling me, Melody, and Jessica about the next day’s plans and how much fun we were all going to have. The next day was Christmas Eve so we would have a few days off from our lessons because family time was just more important. I still had that warm feeling nestled in my chest when I tucked Selina into bed. It helped that she was smiling too. “Good day?” I asked.

Selina nodded at first, uncertain about what to say for a moment. “I… I think that was the best day I ever had, Momma.”

She hadn’t elaborated so I brushed a strand of hair out of her eye as I told her, “I’m glad, I hope it wasn’t too much for you.”

“A… at first, Momma,” she admitted. “I’m not used to people treating me like…”

“Family?” I finished for her as she trailed off. She nodded and I leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead. “Nobody should have to have to get used to being treated with love and respect. You will though, because now you have me and your Aunt Jess, and everyone else here to be the family that you should have had all along. Sweet dreams, Selina, I love you, and so does the rest of our crazy family.”

“I love you, Momma. Good night,” she replied as I padded toward the door. Then, after one last look at her starting to drift away in her bed, I closed the door and went back to the common room to help clean up now that the party was over.

With everyone but Sorcha and Selina helping with the cleanup it didn’t take very long. It had been an eventful day though and some of us were tired so things broke up after that as Carmen, Lou, and the adults headed off to prepare for bed. Jessica was going to head to bed as well so she could text Rose, to tell her about how the party had gone and everything. So Melody and I said our goodnights as well before walking hand-in-hand toward my bedroom.

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's the last chapter of book one of A Cold Fey In Hell. Next week I will start posting new chapters of Snow Angel. There are further chapters of that available my Patreon page. Thanks to Big Closet and to all my readers for your support. I hope you all enjoy. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 24: Christmas Coming

It was nice to wake up feeling satisfied, or at least mostly so. After a very thorough love-making session with Melody after Selina’s party the night before I had been very sated and only had a bit more desire built up over the night. That would be easily dealt with in the shower when we awoke. Selina had apparently slept without nightmares since I had awoken with only Melody in my bed about a half-hour before the alarm was set to go off.

I tried to get out of bed without waking her but Melody seemed to sleep very lightly and the slightest movement or sound near her tended to wake her. I figured that it was some sort of instinctual habit from her time living on the streets and then as a paranormal hitwoman. Regardless, she turned to look cautiously around and then smiled up at me as she said, “Good morning, Beautiful.”

I smiled in return as my breathing hitched slightly. Damn, she was beautiful, in that just woken up kind of way. Crimson horns poked out from her long mussed-up black hair and golden eyes gazed up at me dreamily. I reached out to caress her soft rose gold cheek and kissed her hungrily on those full soft lips. I wanted to do such things to her and have them done to me as well but we needed to get showered soon. Reluctantly, I broke our kiss and murmured, “Mmmmm, if we didn’t have to start getting ready for our day soon…” I trailed off, letting her use her imagination.

“Y’know, we could save time by showering together, we’d be conserving water too,” the half-Demon suggested playfully, breathing heavily in my ear before suckling on my earlobe.

The warmth of Melody’s breath on my ear, her hands cupping the back of my head and tenderly massaging, and the sound of her husky breathing oh so close made me melt. “I… uh…. Yeah… it’s practically our duty as… responsible young people.” I pulled away, a needy groan escaping my lips as I pulled her toward my bathroom. Surely we’d save time by doing this in the shower rather than the bed, right?

We didn’t need to get undressed at least, since we were already naked. I just turned on the water as hot as it would go and we just jumped right in, see we were saving time already. We didn’t even need to adjust the temperature since our Salamanders would allow us to feel the heat of the water but protect us from getting scalded. Soon we were enjoying the hot spray and the room was getting steamy, in more ways than one.

Pro-tip: Showering with someone with who you are both in love and lust does not save time or conserve water. It takes much longer than usual because you spend as much time getting dirty as you do getting clean. Still, it’s very nice on a morning when you have a bit of extra time and seemed to be a good first step toward getting through the day without an aching need to jump the bones of every attractive person I saw. In case you’re new to the program, I’m a freaking Nymph so that’s just about everyone.

Oh sure, it all started out efficiently enough, we washed and conditioned our hair and even washed each other’s backs. It was as we were ‘helping’ one another wash our respective bodies that things went off track. To be fair, it was bound to happen, Melody had gotten me so turned on when she had suggested showering together and she was just as turned on as me if her hard nipples poking into my back while she helped clean my breasts were any indication. Oh, Goddess, I was just fully satisfied the night before and her touch had me already desperate for release once again.

Hot water pounded down on us, our hair and skin good and wet and soapy when Melody turned me around to face her, pressed me against the tiled wall, and began kissing me deeply. Her lips crashed against mine passionately and when her tongue probed, seeking entrance, I parted my lips to allow it. My tongue met hers and darted around it, flicking and licking in a spine-tingling game of keep away until I finally let them entwine and eagerly returned her oral affections.

When our lips finally parted we were both gasping for air, our hands frantically roaming one another’s bodies as I stared into her eyes. I could feel her shiver under my touch as I ran my fingers down her sides and leaned in to kiss and nibble the back of her neck, followed by her shoulder, neck, and collarbone. Finally, my lips reached her breast and as my fingertips moved to tease her inner thighs with ghostly touches I teased her breast as well, slowly circling her hardened nipple with kisses before finally latching on to suckle on it lovingly. Then, as my fingertips parted her folds and brushed at the nub of her clit, I clamped her nipple in my teeth and pulled.

My lover let out a low growl of desire and it was just so damn sexy to me. As a result, Melody’s body wasn’t the only one responding. My nipples ached with primal need, the embers of my desire were being fanned into an inferno as the heat built up in me, and I felt a now all-too-familiar warm wetness flowing between my thighs. It wasn’t the hot water.

As much as I could feel my need and desire becoming harder and harder to ignore by the minute, I wanted to give Melody her pleasure first, before I became too lost in my own need. I feared that that would not be long though since I was already breathing raggedly, my body was aflame with desire, and it was becoming difficult to focus on much besides the burning chasm between my legs that was yearning for stimulation, or better yet to be filled.

Still, I soldiered on, my need to bring her pleasure as important to me, or perhaps more so than immediate relief. I reached up to caress Melody’s face with my left hand, lovingly exploring each feature and contour. My hand traced its way along her warm flesh; her delicate chin, soft cheek, full lips, graceful jawline, nearly pointed ears, and even the cool hardness of her crimson horns.

I gazed up at my half-Demon lover adoringly as my left hand explored, my lips not relenting except to give her left nipple one last affectionate nibble and tug before kissing my way toward the right. Melody gasped as I teased nipple number two beneath my flicking and rolling tongue, delighting in the hardness of it, that ever so slight tremble, and the heaving of her chest as she labored for breath. Finally, I took it between my lips, pulling and suckling as I rolled my tongue adroitly as her breath quickened further. I could feel the needy groan rumble through her as my left hand moved from caressing one of her horns and traced a deliberate path down her spine with a single fingernail.

I nommed eagerly on her nipple and looked up at her, pride and satisfaction filling me as I saw through the steam the state that I had her in. She was clutching the tiled wall and looking down at me in ardent fervor, her desire for release etched upon her face as I suckled her nipple and my hands teased along her spine and between the folds of her sex. I wanted so badly to grant that desire, not just so that I could get my own release, but to please this woman that I was in love with.

A smile graced my lips briefly before I suckled more arduously and slid a pair of fingers, slippery with her wetness more than the water of the shower, between her soft folds and probed the heat within. I gave her a moment to feel their presence and then I began to pump them in and out. I started slowly, feeling her heat and her muscles tightening around my fingers as my thumb brushed her clit in lazy circles. Her breathing became more and more haggard as her hips moved forward, attempting to get more stimulation.

She was ready. I increased the pace suckling harder, fingers pumping faster and deeper, and my thumb more insistent. With each rasping breath that she gasped out, I could feel my efforts coming closer to fruition. Then, once I felt like she was about to reach her summit, I pulled her nipple hard with my teeth and gave one final press to her button as my fingers reached sought that spot that I had discovered within her during our last love-making session.

Melody screamed out her pleasure, clutching the shower wall for support as her back arched and she nearly collapsed. Worried that she might slip and hurt herself I ceased my stimulation and supported her in my arms. For a time, I just held her and kissed her fondly as she recovered her strength and senses. “I love you,” I whispered softly in her ear as the hot water from the shower pelted our flesh.

A warmth that didn’t emanate from the water or between my legs filled me as she leaned into my shoulder and said breathily, “I love you too.” I didn’t think that those words would ever get old, especially coming from Melody. Demons have a lot of stamina and they recover quickly from physical exertion and this was true even for half breeds like Melody. She proved this by kissing me hard and passionately as I thought she was still recovering and pressing me against the tiled wall as she half-growled, “My turn.”

I almost came right then as she took charge, Melody is definitely the dominant one in our relationship. For me it had been about pleasing her and making her happy and just doing that pleased me, it was something that I couldn’t see myself ever feeling with someone else. It was like when she called me a ‘good girl’, it mentally hit me in all the right places like having an orgasm in my mind or soul.

I was beginning to realize that I got that same feeling whenever Melody dominated me and I couldn’t help but think that she felt the same. She wasn’t one of those people who always needed to be in control of things, but she seemed to get off on dominating me as much as I did. So, when she turned things around like that I let out a whimper of yearning and anticipation.

Her lips crashed into mine once more as she held me fast, arms above my head and wrists held firmly in one of her strong hands. It wasn’t enough to be painful, Melody was always careful with her strength so she wouldn’t hurt me and this was just enough to let me know that she was in control. Despite the hot water, I couldn’t hold back a shiver of excitement as she claimed my lips for her own and held me fast.

Once our lips parted once more she looked at me hungrily and growled, “Don’t move.” Then she released my hands from her grip and put both her hands and her mouth to the task of bringing me to climax. I didn’t move, obediently keeping my hands above me and using the wall for support as she had her way with me.

In truth, I needed the support that the wall provided since the kisses and phantasmal touches that Melody was teasing me with had my legs feeling like jelly. She licked my sensitive ear, kissed down along my jawline and down my neck, my collarbone, and even my shoulders as she worked her way downward, fingers and lips teasing my every erogenous zone. Have you ever had someone kiss that little hollow between your neck and collarbone? Their hot breath stimulating you as they pull their lips away and then flick out their tongue to get one last playful contact in before moving on? It was like my body was alive with centers of pleasure that I didn’t know about and yet somehow she managed to find each and every one.

She caressed and suckled each of my breasts and my nipples ached with diamond hardness as she worked her way down to my navel, her hands roaming my spine, the curve of my waist, and my hips. Mere feathered touches had me in an agony of arousal. I was trembling, flushed, and the only sounds that I seemed capable of making were primal moans, gasps, and whimpers or combinations of the three as I tried to hold on to the wall and my sense of self.

By the time that she was kneeling between my legs with her fingertips tracing teasing patterns along my inner thigh and her warm breath blowing across the sensitive folds between my legs, I was lost to the world. I knew only the throbbing ache of desire and shivers of pleasure that she was instilling in me and I wanted more. I wanted completion.

I felt like I was on the countdown slowly leading to blast-off, only I wasn’t sure what number it had started at, let alone where it was now. All that I knew was that I was going to explode any time now. And then she parted my nether lips with her fingers and started to use her tongue. Each stroke of it across my clit threatened to send me into madness and when she lightly bit it as she thrust her fingers inside of me I was sent over the edge and I screamed for what seemed an eternity, my back bent like a bow and my eyes rolled back in my head.

When my consciousness returned from its trip into the nucleus of the sun, reality returned one piece at a time. The first thing that I became aware of was the warmth that infused me, that deep sense of satisfaction. Then my senses returned. I was breathing heavily, deep husky gasps of air, and my flesh felt like it was vibrating. Melody was holding me in her arms or I would have fallen and she whispered softly in my ear, “That’s my good girl.”

I could feel the warmth that those words instilled in me even amidst the hot steam in the bathroom and my post-orgasmic bliss and I sighed and snuggled into her arms until I felt that I had the strength to stand again. She didn’t rush me even though we were probably running late now. When I finally did find that strength, we quickly washed our bodies once again and rinsed ourselves off so that we could rush through the rest of our morning routines and get dressed. The whole time I had that blissful smile on my face, you know, the one where you’ve just been satisfied by your lover to your very bones.

By the time that Melody and I had finished starting Christmas Eve right and then getting ourselves properly groomed and dressed, we were running a bit late and Selina and Jessica were waiting in the hall. “Geeze, did you two sleep through the alarm? How late were you up anyway?” my sister grumbled as Melody and I emerged from my room. A hungry bunny is not a happy bunny.

“Sorry, we actually woke up before the alarm. We just… took our time getting clean,” I replied, trying to hide my smile as I cast a wary look toward Selina. My new daughter did not need to know what we had been up to. She could probably figure it out but I didn’t want to just throw it in her face, the poor girl had enough issues already and she wasn’t a Nymph so thinking about her “Momma” having sex might be weird for her.

The look of sudden realization, followed by the rolling of her eyes as she tried to hide her smirk, let me know that my sister had figured out exactly what we had been up to. I felt bad that I hadn’t been able to spend much one-on-one time with her over the past couple of days between my growing relationship with Melody and needing to take care of things concerning Selina. As we all walked toward the elevator to head downstairs for breakfast I resolved to make some sister time for just the two of us.

Since it was Christmas Eve, and Christmas and Boxing Day would fall on the weekend, it was decided that Jess, Melody, and I would have a few days off from our various lessons. We would be working even harder come Monday but Mom, Merry, and Annika thought that a few days off to relax and spend some time with our new family wouldn’t do any harm. We would be spending all or most of that time at home anyway and if there was something that we really needed or wanted to know then we could always ask.

After breakfast, we all got to work. The club was still open that night, even if it would be closed for the holiday weekend, so the housekeeping staff still had their jobs to do. While they were doing that Mom and most of the club staff would be getting things from storage and decorating the club and the third-floor common room for the holidays. Well, except for Cindy and the guys.

While Lou went off for some male-bonding time with the guys and to get a Christmas tree for the common room, we girls would be helping Cindy in the kitchen and getting in some quality time together. Us girls of course included me, Jessica, Melody, Selina, Carmen, and Sorcha while our quality time would be spent in the kitchen helping Cindy to make Christmas treats.

It was a bit messy at times but it was fun too since the only ones of us who had ever helped Cindy before, or who had any more baking experience than pre-made cookie batter was Carmen and Sorcha. At first, Selina was a bit tense about the whole thing, nervous about messing something up, but with Cindy’s help, we managed to get her to relax and have some fun. We made shortbread, a few types of cookies, fudge, fruitcake, a Christmas log, and balls of chocolate rolled in coconut that Cindy called snowballs.

The last were by far the easiest and the messiest to make but by lunchtime, we had a nice variety of holiday sweets ready. Of course, we had to quality test some of them too. Let me tell you, Cindy’s fudge is amazing, it was like tasting sex. Not that I planned on giving up the real thing or anything.

Before then, I had never really had any interest in cooking, baking, or the kitchen in general. Jessica was much the same, and so while we were living with Dad, unless he was there to do the cooking we mostly subsisted on Jess’s rabbit food and quick microwaveable meals or leftovers for me. Before this, the height of my culinary skills was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Color me surprised, but baking was actually kind of fun. Maybe it was because I was doing it with people who I felt close to, and was getting closer to, or maybe Cindy just knew how to make it fun. It didn’t really matter because we all had fun and I wasn’t quite as leery about doing things in the kitchen now, at least while someone was there with me to make sure that I didn’t burn the place down or something.

I wasn’t itching to be a chef or anything. No, I had career plans that worked much better with my new Nymph nature and that I was actually starting to look forward to. I had definitely gained some appreciation for the work that Brock and Cindy put in every day though, especially since we ended up helping her make lunch as well, under her supervision. We didn’t even burn any of it, well not too badly at least.

After lunch, we headed upstairs and everyone worked together at decorating the tree that Lou and the other guys of the club had brought home. Once the tree was decorated and the lights were turned on, we all brought out the Christmas gifts to put them under the tree. With as many of us as there were in the family though, almost that entire corner of the common room was filled with gifts to be opened the next morning. It was a good thing that the tree lights could be turned off and on by one of the light switches.

With the tree and gifts dealt with, we all just hung out together as a family. We had hot cocoa and eggnog and used some sheets of gingerbread that Cindy had baked earlier, along with some candies and a lot of icing to make gingerbread houses as groups. Us kids made up one group, Mom and the other dancers another and the last group was composed of those who worked the various other roles for the club. It was fun but our house was a bit of a mess since Lou and Carmen were the only ones above the age of four who had ever made one.

Selina was uncertain at times, uncertain about how to react to being included in family activities and being talked to like she mattered or at least not verbally abused. It was something that a lot of us could understand, even Jess and I only really had each other and our Dad before coming to live at the club, so we could get the loneliness. Most of the others were the same, or even worse off like Rhissa and Melody, before joining this family. So we tried not to overwhelm her but to let her be involved at her own pace. She did well, only needing my encouragement a few times to put aside her fears and have a little fun.

Eventually, Mom and the others had to go back downstairs to open the club and get to work. When that happened Carmen, Lou, and Melody decided to play some video games on the big screen television while Selina kept Sorcha occupied by playing with their dolls and getting involved with various games that the four-year-old came up with. Jess and I could have played video games with the others but they offered to watch over Selina and Sorcha while Jess and I got in a bit of sister time before dinner. So for the next two hours, we hung out in Jessica’s room while she gave me some more girl lessons, we practiced some subtle cues that we could use to make people think that we were doing the twin-speak thing, and talked about everything going on in our lives and our love interests.

It was nice to have some time alone, just me and Jess, with everything that had been going on in our lives lately. Don’t get me wrong, most of it was pretty good stuff, even if it was a bit outside our wheelhouse before I Manifested, but for the past six years it had only been us and our Dad and everything that had happened since he had died just over a week ago had been fairly overwhelming. Everything else in our lives had changed and it was reassuring to know that we were still there for one another. We were more than just siblings, she was the north star that I used to find my way back to something familiar when it seemed like I was lost, and I was the same to her.

Neither of us wanted anything to change who and what we were to one another, though Jess was happy that things were going so well between Melody and me and that I was stepping up and trying to be the mother that Selina so desperately needed. Things seemed to be going well between her and Rose as well, and I was happy to see her losing some of her uncertainty about dating a girl, especially an impulsive and enthusiastic one like Rose. Jess needed to let herself have fun once in a while without me there holding her hand and I thought that Rose might help her with that.

We ended up calling Rose and talking to her for a bit before returning to the others to order our dinners from downstairs. We made plans for another double date and let her in on why I had a daughter now and the fact that Melody and I were now very official. She teased the hell out of me but it was all in good fun and she never crossed any lines.

The rest of Christmas Eve was spent watching holiday cartoons like Mickey’s Christmas Carol on television while we snuggled up on the couches. Lou was too cool for cuddling though so he was sitting in one of the armchairs so we didn’t infect him with girly-ness or something. Okay, I have to admit, with me that was probably a very real possibility given my life lately, especially since I’d only had a couple of magic lessons so far.

“This is nice,” I admitted as I sat there watching TV, mentally nuzzling Cinder’s drowsy presence in the back of my mind, and enjoying the company. “It almost feels like things are normal. I… I wish Dad could be here but I think that he’d be glad to know that we’re happy and safe and part of this big family that Pandora and Mom brought together.”

“Yeah,” my sister agreed. “I miss Dad too, but with all of the craziness we’ve been through since he died, I’m glad that we still have each other. And now we have everyone else here too. Dad would want us to be safe and happy and I think that we will be.”

“We should be, Jess. Merriwynd made sure that we covered our tracks pretty well so I don’t think those Demons who killed your dad will be able to find us. And Crystal Manifesting should prevent them from finding us magically. They never knew about you or my real identity and paranoia pays off, I was very careful not to leave anything behind that I could be tracked with,” Melody offered.

“If anything else takes a shot at you or any of us, they’ll regret messing with our family, if Carmilla lets them live that long,” Lou added with a determined look on his face. “We’ve got your backs.”

“Yup, and I know you’ll have our backs too. I was kinda worried about going to St. Michelle’s alone when school starts so it’ll be nice to have people I can trust there with me, at least until the end of the school year,” Carmen admitted.

“Well, after that you can watch over Selina until you graduate since she’ll be starting there next year. And, until then, I can drive us all to school in style,” I said with a nod as I looked at my new daughter who was falling asleep with her head on my shoulder. “Selina, you’re falling asleep. We should get you to bed.”

“But Momma, I want to stay with you and the others,” the Astrae argued sleepily even though it was obvious that she was having trouble keeping her eyes open and her wings were folded against her back, a sure sign that she was falling asleep. “I had such a nice day, I don’t want it to end.”

“Well, tomorrow is going to be even better since it’s our first Christmas here as a family. Come on, let’s go get you tucked into bed,” I insisted, trying to be the responsible mother.

Aislinn nodded from where she was sitting cross-legged with her daughter curled up in her lap fast asleep. “Aye, time for the wee ones to be in bed, I think. Lou, would you mind helping me with Sorcha please?”

“No problem, Aislinn, I’ve got the munchkin,” the young werewolf said with a laugh. “I was planning on heading to my room to do a few things online before going to sleep anyway.” He got up from his chair and bent over to pick up Sorcha, careful not to disturb her too much or wake her up. Aislinn got quickly to her feet and they headed toward their mutual hallway to put the little one to bed.

Selina mumbled a protest as I tried to get up and Melody moved from my other side to kneel in front of her. “Selina. Are you going to be okay if I pick you up and carry you to bed, Kiddo?” She waited for my daughter’s sleepy mumble of assent before picking her up like she weighed nothing. But then she did have Demon strength and Selina had hollow bones so to her she probably did weigh little more than nothing.

We made our way to Selina’s room and I pulled her bedsheet and blanket away so Melody could lay her down. She and Sorcha had both changed into nightgowns earlier so all that we needed to do was put her in the bed, cover her up, and then tuck her in. Once that was done I kissed her good night and whispered, “Good night, Selina, and Merry Christmas.”

As we closed the door behind us and headed back to the living room to spend some quality time with my sister and Carmen, Melody shook her head with a disbelieving smile. “Who would have thought when I first fake-killed you last week that we’d end up someplace like this with you as a Nymph, us in a relationship, and that you would have a teenage daughter in the span of like a week.”

“Not me, that’s for sure,” I replied with a laugh. “My life is fucking crazy, but it does have its high points.” I smiled and glanced briefly back at Selina’s door before leaning on my girlfriend’s shoulder as she put her arm around me and we walked back down the hall to the common room.