“The ghoul?” Delilah asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know, but we’re not going to find out by standing here. Roz, stay with Iris and Maggie, while we go find out if we need to kick some butt.”

CHAPTER 11

I was tired of sneaking around. I didn’t care who it was; if they set off the alarms, they weren’t welcome here, and I’d whale on their backside.

“Come on, we’re not pussyfooting around this time.” I slammed open the kitchen door and, with Camille and Delilah following me, headed into the backyard. The Moon was still up, though she was on her way to setting for the night, and the yard was awash in her glow.

“Where should we look?” That’s one thing the wards couldn’t tell us—where the breach had occurred. Camille and Morio were working on a fix for that, but for now we’d have to hunt down our intruder.

“Wherever we sense trouble.” Camille clattered down the steps behind me. It had been a long night already, and I could tell both she and Delilah were feeling strained. “Let’s split up. I’ll head toward the gardens. Delilah, you take the path toward Birchwater Pond. Menolly, why don’t you head toward the southwest corner of the acreage?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, heading to the left of the house.

We hadn’t done much with the overgrown thicket that sat in the southwest corner of our lot. In fact, we’d made the decision to leave it wild for the nature spirits and animals to forage in. Now, scotch broom overran part of the area, and a giant blackberry bush was making inroads in its grasp for conquest, its vines budding thick with blossoms. The grass here was knee-high and lush. Twin oaks rose out of the thicket of broom, their trunks hidden by the brush. The rain made everything grow thick here, and Camille said the plant spirits were thriving.

As I gingerly pushed aside a nasty bramble vine that drooped across the faintly delineated trail, a spider dropped down from a branch overhead. Startled, I brushed her aside. The orb weavers here were large and striped, but they weren’t venomous. Not that poison would affect me.

Ever since our encounter with the werespiders, Delilah had become squeamish about arachnids. Camille wasn’t fond of them either, but she hadn’t developed an outright fear yet.

As for myself, I kind of liked the little creatures. They were tenacious, persistently reweaving their webs when they were struck down, patiently waiting for their catch. They drank blood—well, blood and body fluids—and I drank blood. They were feared among a large section of the population. So were vampires. We had quite a bit in common, this spider and I.

I made sure the Argiope found her way onto a nearby leaf and continued making inroads onto the thicket of scrub brush and overgrown ferns. The faint marks of the trail ended at the edge of a patch of broom. The plants were huge, towering seven feet high, with brilliant flowers that glimmered golden in the moonlight. The scotch broom made a crackling sound as seed pods exploded, scattering the next generation to the winds.

Ducking between two of the giant weeds, I pushed my way through the labyrinth of grayish green stalks. Not sure where I was headed, I tried to follow my instincts. And then, a few yards into the patch, I sensed something ahead. Or rather, I heard it. A heartbeat. And scent—the scent of delfalia flowers. And delfalia flowers were only found in Otherworld.

I crept forward, searching for the source of the sound. And then in the darkness of the shaded copse of broom I saw the outline of a heat source. Bipedal, could be human, could be Fae or elfin. I slid forward, silent as the night. What the hell was going on? Where had he come from? At that moment, I noticed that the twin oak trunks were glowing. Or rather, there was a glow between them. A portal. We had a freakin’ rogue portal on our land!

Holy shit, that’s probably how the bloatworgle had found its way onto our land a few weeks ago. And who the hell was here now? I squinted, trying to get a better look at our visitor. Whoever he was, he wasn’t friendly, or the wards wouldn’t have started to sound.

A few steps closer, and I stopped short. He was Fae, that much was clear, and he was dressed in blue and gold, the colors of Y’Elestrial. One of the old guard? Our deposed queen was still on the run with a handful of supporters, and reports of massacres and skirmishes filtered through on a regular basis, according to our father, who now had access to all the inside information. But what was the man doing here? Had he come to assassinate us? Lethesanar must really hate our family by now. Not only had our father and aunt been instrumental in her downfall, but my sisters and I’d switched sides.

Whoever he was, I couldn’t let him return through that portal without finding out why he was here. I bided my time till he looked away, then leapt, swiftly grabbing him around the neck.

“Who the hell are you, and what are you doing on our land?” I pressed my knee into the small of his back. “Answer me, because with one move, I could break your back with my knee. And I don’t think you’d want that, would you?”

He sputtered, struggling against me. I decided to take the most expedient route and brought my fist down on his head, promptly knocking him unconscious. Then I slung him—and the bag he was carrying—over my shoulder and headed back to the house.

Camille saw me as she emerged from the flower and vegetable gardens. “Who’s that?”

“I don’t know, but I found him near the twin oaks. By the way, the scotch broom is hiding a portal between the two trees. We’re going to have to ask Queen Tanaquar or Queen Asteria for someone to stand guard. We can’t have strangers hopping onto our land whenever they feel like it, especially since we don’t know where it leads.” I nodded to the house. “Get some rope and a gag. If he uses magic, we don’t want him casting voice-activated spells.”

Without a word, she ran ahead, dashing up the stairs to the porch. After a moment, she returned, Rozurial in tow, along with a loop of rope over her shoulder and a clean cotton dish towel.

“I figured Roz could watch the portal for us the rest of the night,” she said.

“Good. Help me tie him up, and then I’ll show Roz where it is.” While Rozurial and Camille held the man’s arms and legs together, I made sure he was secure, then twisted the towel into a thick rope and gagged him, making sure he wouldn’t choke.

After he was firmly bound, I carried him over to the shed we’d recently retrofitted into a studio for Roz, Vanzir, and our cousin Shamas. Better not to have questionable visitors in the main house. I unceremoniously dumped him on the sofa. When Camille gave me a queer look, I shrugged.

“Hey, he set off the wards, he’s probably dangerous, and I don’t feel like being nice to somebody who’s out to kill us.”

“Gotcha,” she said. “Go on. I can watch him. Show Roz where the portal is. Tomorrow we’ll figure out what to do about it.” She waved me out.

With a glance back at the shed, I led Roz toward the back end of the property. He stared at the thicket as we approached.

“Lovely. You ever hear of hedge clippers? A Weedwacker, perhaps? Even a goat would make a nice dent in the jungle you’ve got going here.” He shook his head. “Nature freaks. You’re all just a bunch of tree huggers.” The fact that he was smiling when he said it kept me from shoving him face-first into the undergrowth.

“Camille and Iris want to let it grow wild for the plant devas, and frankly, I think it makes a nice change compared to the meticulously manicured lawns around here. Beauty bark sucks. I’ve never understood the desire to turn nature into a nice, tidy piece of art. Even back in Otherworld—the City of Seers, for example—they tend to overprune anything that even remotely threatens to get out of hand.”

I parted the scotch broom to let Roz slide through. The cuts and scrapes I got from the various thorns and branches didn’t bother me, but even though Rozurial was an incubus, he could still be injured.

He slipped through the opening, and we made our way between the bushes that crowded together. After a few moments, we stood in front of the oak portal.

“I wonder where it leads,” he said.

“I’d like to know the answer to that myself. But if I go through and there happens to be sunlight on the other side . . . the results wouldn’t be pretty. You want to take a peek for me?” I thought about pushing my hand through. That alone would tell me whether it was safe or not, but before I could try it out, Roz stepped through the portal and vanished.

I waited. One minute. Two minutes. An owl hooted softly in the distance as I stood there tapping one finger against my arm. Three minutes. I was beginning to get a little worried. Suppose Roz had stepped into a trap? Or worse? There were some places in Otherworld that made the Subterranean Realms look like a picnic in the park. Four minutes. Where the fuck was he? Maybe I should just bite the bullet and go through?

Just as I was about to steel myself for a potentially deadly and quick end, Roz came bounding back through the portal.

“Where the hell were you? I was worried you’d gotten yourself knocked off.” I didn’t like admitting how nervous I’d been; it conflicted with my image.

Roz draped one arm over my shoulder, a risky proposition. He knew I wasn’t comfortable being touched, but then again, we’d had a few kiss-and-tell sessions, and I couldn’t just switch on-off depending on my mood.

I steeled myself against his touch. His pulse was warm and heady with sexual energy and blood. The combo could be a lethal one, depending on the vampire in question. But he was an incubus and could afford to take a few chances.

“You were worried about me? How sweet,” he murmured, leaning down to nuzzle my neck.

Shivering, I squirmed, bending my neck sideways so he couldn’t nibble on it. “Stop it,” I whispered. “Not now. We’ve got more important things to talk about than your penis and its whims.”

“You’d love my . . . whims . . . if you’d just give me a chance,” Roz said, his voice as slick as satin sheets. “Come on. You know we’d rock together.”

That was the problem. He was right, and I knew it. But I also knew that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to start up a second relationship. While Roz might be casual with humans and the other Fae he seduced, he had the potential to drag me deep into his world. And I just wasn’t ready to fall into lust with him.

“If you don’t stop, I’m not going to play tongue twister with you anymore.” I pushed him away and crossed my arms, pointedly waiting.

He cleared his throat and gave me an Eh—what can you do? shrug. “All right, all right. I’ll be good. The portal leads to the Windwillow Valley, as far as I can tell. No goblins, no bloody bands waiting there. I had a quick look-see, and I think it opens out near the Wyvern Ocean.”

“That would place it near the northwestern boundaries of the valley, then. Near the Silofel Plains.” I hadn’t been there, but I remembered my geography lessons. “Did you see anybody there? Unicorns, maybe?”

Roz shook his head. “No. No one, which frankly perplexes me. The man who came through, you’re sure he’s trouble? Because not many of the Fae hang out in the Windwillow Valley except for those who live in synch with the Cryptos there. It’s a wild place, unfriendly to most civilized politics, although I hear the King of the Dahns Unicorns keeps a strict court in Dahnsburg.”

“He was wearing the colors of Y’Elestrial,” I said, biting my lip. This didn’t make sense. I was about to head back to the studio and our unexpected visitor when Delilah’s scream cut through the night.

“Holy shit, that’s Delilah. Leave the portal for now!”

We raced back through the patch of broom, shoving it aside and trampling all the young seedlings as we ran. As we burst out into the main yard, we could see Kitten near the trailhead across the lawn. She was grappling with something, and it looked suspiciously like an inky squid.

“Crap—it’s one of those demons. That’s what set off the wards! Come on, we have to get her away from it. The damn thing’s hovering between the astral and the physical. We can’t fight it right now.”

I dashed across the yard, Roz matching my strides. He leapt ahead of me and suddenly vanished from sight. I skidded to a stop, looking around wildly. Where the hell had he gone now? But Delilah’s cries startled me out of my bewilderment.

The creature had hold of her with its tentacles, and one was making its way toward her head. Crap! That couldn’t be good. I raced in, trying to land a kick, but—as in the Avalon Club—I found myself bouncing off an invisible force field, and I went flying back.

As I leapt up again, I noticed something going on near Delilah’s head. The creature’s tentacle that was headed toward her skull was fighting with something I couldn’t see. Roz! It had to be Roz!

Desperate to help, I tried to figure out what I could do. Then it occurred to me: I couldn’t touch it, but I could get hold of my sister. I leapt into the fray, diving behind Delilah. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled. The demon struggled to hang on, but I had the advantage of being fully on the physical, and I managed to wrest Delilah from its tentacles. They gave way with a loud sucking sound.

Delilah was bleeding a little. I tossed her over my shoulder and raced away from the creature.

“Menolly, get behind the bush and close your eyes!”

Camille’s voice rang out across the yard. I didn’t ask why; I just did what she said. As we landed behind a thick bracken fern that was at least three feet high, I pressed myself to the ground next to Kitten and closed my eyes.

A loud crack sounded, like thunder, and I could feel my back singe as a wave of light rolled over me. I held perfectly still as it passed over us and dissipated.