Secrets & Shadows
Chapter 4

In my young teens I once “stumbled” into Faewild. I was told many horrific things about it and I was warned several times by my mother, who also happened to be my magical teacher, not to go there. So, naturally, I did as any average, red blooded, magical teen who thinks they are invincible does; I walked right into where I was told not to go. It was here, in Faewild, I found a faery called Leanan Sidhe.

I found her floating around tending her rose garden, Pruning stems and petals, plucking weeds and watering. She was beautiful. Many would say beauty of this caliber was a work of art or some other poetic comparison. But to me she was just simply beautiful. She had no comparison.

She welcomed me into her home with open arms. Literally. She spoke with a lyrical, subtle irish accent and opened her arms wide and drew me into her embrace. I stayed and conversed with her and walked with her around her garden. She showed me the alien flowers of the area, and cared for me while I was with her. Obviously being a teen boy and due to her supernatural beauty she had my constant attention.

I wasn’t always the most diligent of students as far as controlling my magic, or using it. Sorcerers, as I’ve said, have a lot of innate magical ability and talent from birth. I, however, did not. It was difficult for me to even just light a candle. I also had the hardest time just paying attention to the spell books I was supposed to be reading and retaining. But, during my stay with Leanan Sidhe, she gave me the inspiration, confidence and motivation to be better and helped me to unlock my magical potential.

I was apparently in Leanan Sidhe’s lair for three days, though I would never have guessed it. Each day blended together between the food she gave me, the talks we had, the love we made. She made it feel as if no time had passed at all. On the third day I was in her care she told me she loved me, kissed me deeply and wanted me to stay with her in Faewild. My mother somehow found me and pulled me back through a portal she made to the mundane world and used a powerful ward to keep my magic sealed for a month and had me practice writing various magic runes and wards.

After I was dragged back to the mundane world, the withdrawal from her presence was agonizing. I was angry, lonely and wanted Leanan Sidhe back. Because I was a dumb teenaged boy I felt like I had an emotional connection to her; a feeling like having a crush on someone that doesn’t fade even you know that you cannot have that person. But it was just teen lust.

It was for this exact reason why my mother sealed my magic away temporarily. I would have gone back and stayed there and would have died in Leanan Sidhe’s arms. Leanan Sidhe unfortunately tends to wear down her lover’s vitality and life fairly quickly and all her lovers, whom she inspires so well, die fairly young. I owed a lot to both my mom and Leanan Sidhe. One for showing what kind of sorcerer I could become, and the other guiding me in the right direction.

* * *

With the little bit of information gathered I thanked Mara, and we saw ourselves out. Panic began to grow in my brain as we left, just thinking about having to deal with Leanan Sidhe again.

“Asphodel, belladonna, cinnamon,” I began chanting my pneumatic device. I took a deep breath and eased my heart down, my mind clear. It wasn’t long before I realized how heavy my body felt. Just being in that building surrounded by so many succubi and incubi, they managed to inadvertently siphon some of my energy.

I had forgotten what it was like to be around Mara for so long. I was beyond exhausted, I didn’t know what was still keeping me going. Puck and I barely made it to the car. Nevermind how we had made it home. I still can’t figure that out. Best I could figure was my body was on auto-pilot and just got us home. I trudged up the stairs to my apartment carrying the Ouija board under my arm. Everything was just so exhausting. Even Puck was having trouble flying with me so he just hung out on my shoulder. I didn’t think just spending time at the Prana vampire headquarters would wear us out that much. We walked down the hall to the apartment door and noticed it was slightly ajar.

Who would break into my apartment? I gathered what little energy I had left, getting ready for whatever might be on the other side. I opened the door slowly, and carefully stepped inside.

I scanned the whole area, Puck fluttering close by me. I look over to the couch and notice Siren laid out on it totally relaxed like it belonged to her.

“Siren, what the hell are you doing here? You know it’s not a good idea to be out alone. Especially since we don’t know what, if anything, you guys summoned is around or dangerous,” I said as I thought, ’yeah, that line wasn’t cliche at all.’ “That shadow, or whatever it was, might come back.” To this, Siren stretched and sat up on the couch.

“Well, you said if I needed to talk about anything to call you. I couldn’t get a hold of you so I dropped by,” she said. I forgot that I put my address on my business card.

She was wearing an outfit quite different from this morning. She wore a black corset top that looked like it was from HotTopic, only more expensive, a short pleated skirt with black thigh high stockings and a pair of Mary Jane type shoes. She didn’t have a lot of makeup on, like she usually does on stage, just the clothes she usually wears when performing.

She started to get up and saunter towards me, her hips swaying with each step.

“Well, what do you need to talk with me about?” I said, trying not to stare. It was much harder than it sounds.

“I wanted to tell you more about Ghost,” She said. “There’s something we didn’t mention about him.” She was starting to cozy up pretty close to me. She kept her hands behind her as she came in close.

“Alright well? What is it?” I asked. Siren was really starting to test my integrity. What, exactly, was she trying to pull?

“I wanted to let you know, before Ghost died,” she said looking down at the floor. “I overheard him talking to Eddy about breaking away from the band. And from me. Eddy sounded so mad!” she sounded increasingly morose. I never thought that I would ever hear this powerful, confident, performer sound as sad and vulnerable as she was now. I didn’t know what to do. So I did the only thing that made sense to me.

I hugged her.

It was then she buried her face into my chest, broke down and cried. Some women are beautiful when they cry. Siren was not one of them. She grabbed onto me and let out a hard and heavy cry. There was nothing else I could do but hold her against me and let her cry rivers of tears into my shirt.

“You haven’t had time to process all that’s happened yet, have you?” I asked. All she could do was shake her head and continue to cry in response. We leaned into each other as I let her get it all out of her system. “Listen here,” I said. “I’m going to replace out exactly what happened to Ghost. Figure out who or what did that to him. You have my word.”

Siren sniffled and looked up at me wiping away the remains of her tears. Some of her mascara had run down her face a bit and smudged around her eyes. “You will? I have your word on it?” she managed to say.

“Yes, you do,” I said. In the magical world when someone gives you their word, then that word is law. It’s a magical binding contract that you will do everything in your power to keep it. Breaking an oath like that has dire consequences to whomever gave their word. Usually ended in a nasty ‘accident’.

“Who says silly things like that anymore?” she let out a small musical chuckle. “Thank you, Mr. Frost.” I was taken aback when I felt a ‘ping’ in my chest as Siren said my Name. Wait, did she just say my Name? That was unexpected. I tried not to show the discombobulation on my face.

“Yeah. No problem,” I said with a little hesitation. “I’ll call you guys as soon as I know something.” I opened the door for Siren and she left without another word.

I waited a minute until she was out of earshot before I went to replace Puck. “Puck?!” I called out in the apartment. “Puck? We have a possible new development! Puck?” I looked around. I found that he had escaped my jacket pocket at some point and had made a bed for himself out of a dish rag on top of my bookshelf, in my bedroom and was quietly snoring. It was then that I realized just how exhausted I was as well. It was so strange, it felt just like when I was going out with Mara. I knew I was beat from the studio, but I didn’t think it was this bad just a moment ago.

I chalked it up to my prolonged conversation with Siren and the emotional toll of helping a young woman grieve the loss of her lover and friend. I shook off my jacket, kicked off my shoes and collapsed on my bed. Before my eyelids won their fight to close, I saw the clock on my nightstand said 12:02PM. “Gods damn it all,” I muttered. “It’s only freaking noon…,” was all I managed to say before I finally fell into a deep sleep and dreamt.

They say when you dream, the faces of people you’ve seen and met, plus the things you see during the day, all of it, you see in a dream. Now if that is true, why were my dreams filled with faceless and nameless horrors and terrors? Things I never wanted to dream or even see ever again.

The one downside of being a sorcerer, you can’t always see the bad things that are around you. Sorcerers can only see the really bad things, when they want to be seen. Wizards, however, have a third eye sight that can see these things, in all their glory or horror. Perhaps me not being able to see these nameless Lovecraftian creatures was a blessing in disguise?

I woke up in a cold sweat a few hours later shouting at some other dream creature that tried to gnaw at my face. Puck woke up from a start too, presumably from my shouting. “Sorry about that, Puck. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

Puck attempted to catch his breath and muttered something at me in Gaelic, his normal language. No idea what he said but it didn’t sound very nice.

’I really should start to learn Gaelic,’ I thought to myself. It was right about then that my stomach started growling angrily at me.

“Holy famine, Batman!” I said. “We haven’t eaten since before yesterday.” We did only have coffee this morning and hadn’t eaten since sometime yesterday. I went over to the small fridge in the kitchen to see what we actually had. There wasn’t a lot: beer, soda, bread, hotdogs and a lot of cheap frozen breakfast and dinner foods. I warmed up some microwave food for both Puck and I. I ate enough for two, and Puck ate enough for a small human. I still had no idea where he put it all.

The phone began to ring and I got up and rushed to it. “Paranormal Investigations, this is Lance,” I said in a professional, albeit sleepy, tone.

“Frost!” A loud, friendly, bass heavy voice said.

“Detective Green?” I inquired.

“Yeah it’s me,” he laughed. “Sounds like I caught you just waking up. How’s the first day going?”

“It’s exhausting to say the least,” I began. “And I didn’t even really do that much yet! How do you all do this intense police work for a career?”

“Loads of practice and patience,” said the Detective. “Did you have any questions as far as needing help on leads yet?” Detective Green agreed that he would help with whatever I needed, whenever he could since I had never done any “legitimate” investigations before.

“Well, I went to ask the band members what they remember happening on their bus. Also what the girlfriend remembered from the night that Ghost disappeared; they didn’t tell me anything new,” I explained. “Then I went to check on that mark that was on the victim’s wrist. It was a mark for a local group of people who like to think they’re vampires.” It’s not like I could actually tell the detective the exact truth about the weird happenings that he, already, didn’t want to know about. So I had to embellish a little. “Along with some other spooky stuff you probably wouldn’t be interested in. When I got home from those excursions, the Ghost’s girlfriend showed up in my apartment while I was out.”

“Did she break in?” Green asked.

“No, at least I don’t think they did. I could have left the door unlocked. She was relaxed on my couch when I walked in. She didn’t take anything, not that there’s much to take,” I said under my breath. “But anyway, she told me something that may have narrowed down a list of people.”

“Alright, tell me what you got,” Green seemed pretty happy we were getting somewhere.

“Well, Siren, the singer and girlfriend, told me that before our victim, Ghost, went missing and died, she overheard him talking with their manager. She heard Ghost tell Eddy he wanted to break away from the band and break up with her. She went on to say that Eddy was pretty pissed off about it as well,” I tried to explain as clearly as I could despite my sleepiness.

“Well, it’s a shitty motive for murder, but it could be one,” Green said thoughtfully.

“I suppose then it’s a question of who had the opportunity then, right?” I asked.

“You got it,” Green said. “Siren had some opportunity, but we lack the evidence to suggest that it could be her.” Green spoke low so that way his already booming voice didn’t carry too far from his desk. “Let me give you some tips that might help out.” I wrote down his tips and tricks on a pad of paper from my desk and pocketed it.

“Thanks for checking on me, detective!” I said earnestly.

“Yeah, no problem! Just call me if things get too serious out there,” he said as he hung up the phone. I really hoped things didn’t get so serious that it required the authorities. Actually, I was really hoping to avoid that all together. The way things were starting to look, I might have a lot of magic getting flung around and can’t afford to have the whole open world know about magic. But, I wasn’t going to worry about that just yet. I had work to do in Faewild and I had to see what was actually summoned with this Ouija board.

After getting some coffee in me, and leaving none for Puck, I went to the bathroom to wash up a bit to help finish waking up. I splashed some cold water on my face and looked in the mirror as I dried off. Dark circles were forming under my eyes and I looked a bit more pale than usual. Yep, this was exactly like how it was when I was with Mara. I hoped my complexion would come back sooner rather than later.

Once I was done, I gathered up five black candles and my chalk from a locked drawer of my desk. I locked my office door, made sure all the curtains in the house were closed, and made sure all the mirrors were covered with blankets as I got ready to create a Waypoint to get into Faewild. All of the curtains over the windows and the blankets over the mirrors had runes painted on them to act as magic barriers. The windows and mirrors had to be covered just in case something followed me back home. If it did, it wouldn’t be able to hide in a mirror or go into the outside world and cause some havoc.

I cleared off a section of my floor and drew a three foot circle with a ten-pointed star inside and closed it with a bit of magic energy to finish it. I placed the board in the middle and began to chant a small incantation.

The spell I was performing was mostly used as a window in time so that one could see what transpired in the recent past. When used with an object, you can see what happened the last time the particular object was used. It plays out like a magical surveillance video where I can fast forward, rewind, pause, etc.

In this case a circular window appeared before me within the circle I had drawn, above the board. I saw everything as the band members had described. I held up my hand and stopped the image as I saw the dark cloud come out of the board and hover above them. I gestured with my hands facing the image to zoom in on it. I could make out, ever so faintly, a mischievous face in the cloud. I froze the image there and got up to reference a book off of the bookshelf by the TV. This book in particular was full of ghostly images and what types of phantoms and spirits to whom they belong.

I was able to flip through and replace the image I was looking for relatively quickly. It was a face that reminded me of a demented clown. The face had a large nose, a big triangular smile, along with, what appeared to be, large crooked teeth.

Unfortunately, the book didn’t have any more information other than it was a malevolent spirit. Damn, I was hoping I had something to tell Eddy and the others. Oh well, I could always do more research later.

I broke the circle with my foot to stop the spell and removed the board. The spell ended with an audible ‘pop’. I replaced the ten-pointed star with a pentagram. I placed a black candle on each of the points and gave a waive to light them all simultaneously. While finishing the circle with my chalk I pushed more magic back into it. The pentagram gave a quick, bright flash as soon as the two ends of the circle connected, signaling that the creation of the portal was ready for a destination.

The whole circle was glowing steady with a bright pale blue light. I knelt down and placed my hand at the bottom of the circle and in a loud clear voice I called out my destination: “Faewild!”

An image appeared of a dark and misty landscape within the circle on the floor. I got up and stood above it, still outside the circle. Puck quickly came fluttering over.

“Can I come with you, sir?” Puck asked eagerly.

“Not this time, Puck,” I told him. “This is Unseelie land, you would be killed on sight. And we don’t need that right now.”

“Winter faeries!?” Puck shouted. “Nevermind, you can deal with that all on your own,” Puck went and buzzed off towards the bedroom. I idly began to wonder what it was Puck did whenever I was gone and left him to his own devices?

“Yeah, that’s kinda what I was implying,” I said under my breath. I steadied myself as I looked down at the Waypoint.

It looked like a circular window on my floor showing the dry, bluish, grassy, twilight landscape. The fair weather there gave a gentle breeze as the similar, but alien, flora swayed with it. Unknown dangers lurked inside each bush and tree ready to pounce on anything that it could claim as a meal. The thoughts of unknown horrors sent a chill up my spine. Horrible memories from my teen years flashed in my mind as I grabbed my jacket. I hoped I wouldn’t have to relive those nightmares.

“Asphodel, belladonna, cinnamon, dittany,” I chanted to myself as I closed my eyes and stepped into the Waypoint. I felt a rush of air blow up from under me and my body getting pushed and pulled in every direction. Sounds rushed and swirled around me at a deafening volume. It all settled down quicker than I remembered last I came here. I opened my eyes and saw I was in Faewild. More specifically just outside of Faewild. My ears were still ringing from all the noise in teleporting.

Faewild is where all “Fairytale things″ come from. Faeries, trolls, giants, unicorns, everything. You name a fairytale creature, chances are, it’s here; along with other creatures you’d only imagine in your worst nightmares. All of Faewild is dark, as it is in a perpetual twilight. It has all the look and feel of Kansas at the edge of winter actually: dormant grass (only this grass is blue), icy wind, slightly cloudy skies and barren trees scattered around the plains. An alien moon, much bigger than ours, and alien stars peered through the clouds, both giving a little light to the depressing, nearly dead landscape. The cold air brought out the bitterness, anger and malice of everything that lived there.

As I got my bearings and collected myself, I looked to my left. Far in the distance, I could see a tall castle that appeared to be in ruin. I recognized this, from my teachings, as the Unseelie, or Winter, Queen’s castle, Windkeep Citadel. This is considered to be a huge ‘no-go zone’ by any and all magic practitioners. It is said to be a horrible place where death would be a glorious release from whatever terrors awaited trespassers to the Unseelie Queen’s kingdom.

One quick tidbit you should know about faeries is that they fall into two different courts: The Seelie and Unseelie.

The Seelie Courts are typically kind, gentle and generally fun. Puck is one of these Seelie faeries. They are used to the presence of humans and repay favors with equality, life for a life kinda thing, but you still don’t want to make them angry. As the saying goes, ‘Hell hath no fury like a faery scorned.’ At least I think that’s the saying.

The Unseelie Courts are the exact polar opposite. They’re cold, malicious and typically would sooner kill you than look at you. These were the ones I had dealt with in my youth and the same ones that I would need to deal with once more going into Faewild, which was located deep in Unseelie territory.

Straight ahead and a fair distance away from me, perhaps a few miles, lay Faewild. A joining of the surrounding hills that created the valley ahead which was home to the Leanan Sidhe. My heart hurt wondering if she still remembered me. I muttered a protective ward around my exit Waypoint so nothing could get into the mundane world, and turned towards my destination.

I couldn’t see anyone or anything, but I could feel unknown eyes on me. Most likely some nameless things behind any number of the bushes scattered throughout the Fae wilderness. Most minor fae in the area can conceal themselves from mortals, so there wasn’t a good chance of me seeing anything for a while, unless it wanted to eat me or something. After taking in my surroundings, I bundled up my jacket and started walking in the cold.

After a while of walking with nothing but the sound of the wind as company, I heard bushes rustling behind me. I turned holding up my hand and readied a spell. A small little rabbit had popped out of the bushes. It twitched its nose in my direction and sat on its haunches and my heart relaxed. The rabbit began to lick its paws to wash its face before it yawned. This wasn’t a regular bunny yawn. The rabbit’s mouth kept opening and opening, wider and wider. Before long it showed off jaws like a snakes as it feeds with row upon row of pants wetting sharp teeth. The demon bunny finished its nightmarish yawn and hopped off into the next bush. See, what did I tell you? Nightmarish creatures.

I slowly turned around and pressed on in the freezing air. I hated walking in the cold. Nothing I could do would warm me up. I could use some fire magic and make my hands warm, but that would only be temporary and would only succeed in making the rest of me feel colder. So, in defeat, I just pulled my hood on my jacket up, and wrapped my arms around myself and thought of Leanan Sidhe’s warm embrace.

Even though it was only a few miles, this distance to Faewild never seemed to close in. To my right, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A cloaked figure rose up in the air and made a motion I could not quite see. “Great, now what?” I muttered to myself.

I stopped to examine the scene that was playing out in the distance. The figure stopped and just hovered. After a moment or two the wind began picking up from that direction. Then I heard it; an ear piercing scream. I held my ears closed against my head hoping my eardrums didn’t burst. The figure turned towards me and began flying towards me, fast.

“Shit!” I said in a panicked voice and began to run as fast as I could. The hooded figure coming towards me at breakneck speed was a banshee. Typically, in life, banshee were women who died of grief. They wear gray cloaks over muted green dresses and have flowing red hair with red eyes from constant crying. Their main duty in the mundane world is to tell an unlucky person that they, or someone close to them, is about to die. Within their own realm however, they like to chase down and kill mortal men.

I started running as fast as my feet would take me. The banshee was still flying towards me, wailing and howling in her lamentations. She was getting closer and closer still, her arms outstretched, reaching for me.

“Shit! Shit! Shit! Fuck! Shit!” Running ever faster, faster than I thought I could run. Looking up I saw I was nearly home free. Faewild was just a few more strides away.

“Almost there! Almost there! Almost safe!” As ironic as it was, I would be safe in Faewild, at least from the banshee. Leanan Sidhe made sure that I would always be safe in her home. So she made sure a barrier was put up should I ever enter again. And before you say anything, yes it is convenient.

In my excitement I began to stumble, before tripping over my own feet and went sprawling and rolling head over heels for several feet before sliding to a stop. Impending doom behind me, I turned and crawled backwards in a feeble attempt to get away, my back against a sheer cliff face. I felt as if my heart was about to beat itself out of my chest. The banshee rushed at me, her red eyes blazing, arms and clawed hands waiting to tear my flesh apart. If I could see clearly under her hood I’m sure she would have given a smug smile. The look that a predator must give when it has finally cornered its meal. She gave one final reach before she hit an invisible wall. I couldn’t see much but I could tell she was confused as she tried again and again. Realizing she couldn’t get her prey, she wailed again, half in anger, half in her usual sadness, and wandered off elsewhere.

“Asphodel, belladonna, cinnamon,” I said, breathing a few sighs of relief, the moist hot air from my mouth freezing, and got up to dust myself off. It had gotten much colder since entering Faewild. I straightened my jacket, and turned and walked down the valley, wind blowing a little stronger now. The close hills created a wind tunnel effect. I bundled up as best I could. Biting the bullet, I warmed both my hands with a slow charge of magic energy and placed them under my armpits trying to warm myself up. Slowly I trudged forward, muttering, “Asphodel, belladonna.”

Deep into the valley a large pool of water, which stood still as glass, was at the center of the glen. Surrounded by roses as far as the eye could see.

“Alright, this is the place,” I muttered. Despite the blowing wind, the pool of water remained perfectly still and silver. The blooming lily pads gave the pool a very peaceful aesthetic that was almost charming. The roses were picture perfect, like something out of “Home and Garden” magazine. Other strange plants in bloom or in full foliage looking picturesque surrounded the rest of the glen.

I put magic into my voice and called out to the open air, “Leanan Sidhe! I’m back!” Immediately a strong gust of wind kicked up. Dust and dead grasses were picked up and swirled in a vortex in front of me. Once the wind had died down, a pale figure stood in front of me. The figure was the faery that was responsible for unlocking potential and muse. She also happened to be madly in love with me. Her name was Leanan Sidhe.

She looked exactly as beautiful as I remembered. Her fiery red hair reached down to her feet. Her skin was pale and her eyes resembled fire opals. The only thing she wore was a sheer emerald green toga-like garment. Whereas most faeries were small, Leanan Sidhe was the size of a human woman when she stood on the ground rather than her usual floating with her large, nearly invisible, dragonfly wings.

She nearly tackled me with a hug on sight. “Lance! My love! You came back!” she said excitedly in her subtle irish accent, smiling gently while floating before me. “I’ve missed you so much. I could hardly sleep and I’ve been so worried about you since you left last! Have you come to stay this time?” her green eyes looked at me filled with hope and eagerness.

“I wish that were the case,” I said. “This is just a quick visit and I can’t stay long. I’m actually looking for some information on something called the Abyss Walker. Have you heard of it?”

“Aye, I have,” she said with a sad smile. “Come, walk with me.” She sounded so disappointed. The excited look on her face now muted with a neutral look as she tended her garden while we walked. Well I walked, she floated. Her wings created a very subtle breeze I could feel through my hair. “What is it you need to know, my love?”

“Everything really,” I admitted. “All I have to go on is that it is a legend among vampires.”

“I tell you what you desire. But,” she paused. She held herself and bit her lower lip. Her gaze was one of pure lust. “You must marry me in exchange.”

My eyes went wide and almost popped out of my head. “M-m-marry you?”

“Aye, my sweetheart. I’ve loved you since you first came to me,” she hovered behind me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, her smallish breasts pressing into my back, her icy breath on my ear. For as much as I’ve matured since I first met Leanan Sidhe in my youth, my drive was still apparently that of my teenage self.

She whispered into my ear softly, “Have I not given you the muse? Have I not unlocked your potential to become a great sorcerer? Did I not show you kindness? Did I not show you the joys of love? Am I to just live here in agony in unrequited love?” Man, she really knew how to guilt trip a guy.

“You have, Leanan Sidhe; and I will always be grateful for that,” I said. Memories of the times we rolled in her garden flooded my brain. Her touch, her kiss, her gift of inspiration and muse to help me bring out the magic I had struggled to control as a teenager. Not to mention all the time we spent, never mind. I shook off the thoughts. Now was not the time for that.

“I just cannot make that promise right now,” I said. “People in my realm, my city, might be getting hurt and I need to put the potential you brought out in me to good use and protect others.”

Leanan Sidhe floated in place, her barely visible wings giving the softest of buzzing sounds. Her form bobbed slowly, up and down, while she thought deep before her face brightened again.

“I will take your answer as a maybe. I’ll give you three days for a real proposal,” she said cheerfully. “And, with that being said, I will tell you what it is you need to know.” Before I could protest her telling me the information I was looking for, she floated in front of me, crossed her legs and lowered herself so she was eye-to-eye with me.

“The creature you seek,” she began. “Its real Name has long since been forgotten. The creature is like a cancer in your world. Whenever it wakes, it begins to consume and grow and doesn’t stop until its hunger is satisfied.”

“And how long is that usually? A week, a month?”

“A whole year,” she said. I stood in shock, speechless. “It will just keep killing and feeding more and more each day it is loose. So you can see how much damage it can do to your world. I think the last time it was in your world I remember hearing it being called the Beast of Gevaudan in a place called France.”

The Beast of Gevaudan was thought to have been a werewolf and where the lycanthrope legend originates. It killed many people within the course of a year before being shot and killed by villagers.

“But that was supposed to be a werewolf,” I said.

“The creature you call the Abyss Walker is able to inhabit anything living,” Leanan Sidhe explained. “It can be a wolf, a deer, or a human. This is what makes it so dangerous.”

“How does this Abyss Walker feed exactly?” I asked. “I mean, the last time people thought it was a werewolf. They had the bite marks on victims to show that. If it possessed something else would it kill the same way its host would kill?”

“In the most primal of ways, yes,” she replied. “It usually absorbs life through a bite, anything that happens to the prey after that is just primal urges.”

’That explains the bite mark on Ghost,’ I thought.

“How do I get rid of it?” I asked. “The Beast of Gevaudan was shot and killed after it was hunted.”

“Just like with that beast of old, the Abyss Walker can only be banished if its host’s body is destroyed,” she said.

“You mean if who, or whatever, it’s possessing is killed?” I asked.

“Yes. It’s the only way,” she said.

“But I can’t kill anyone. I won’t!” In my world, the magic community, that is, magic use is loosely governed by a short set of laws unimaginatively called the ‘Laws of Magic’. They are enforced by a Magic Council of thirteen members. One of those laws says that a magic user cannot use magic to kill. Period. Even for self-defense. That’s why I’ve always banished various entities or sealed them away where they won’t hurt anybody. And obviously I can’t just kill a person by conventional methods since that’s, you know, murder.

“You must, my love. Or you and others you’re close to could fall victim to its voraciousness.”

“There must be another way!” I exclaimed. I wasn’t liking the odds of having to break the law. Be it magical or man’s law. And I did not want to replace out what punishment from the Magic Council would come with that. Let’s not forget the consequences of being caught red handed for murder! Ugh, I hate lose-lose situations.

“I’m sorry, Love. But, there isn’t,” she said. My mind was racing, I had no idea what I was going to do. Before I could even begin to think Leanan Sidhe cupped my face in her slender hands and kissed me passionately. Kissing a powerful fae like her was just indescribable. The familiar surge of electricity was flowing through my body. She broke the kiss and held me close, placing my head between her breasts. While my primal mind loved the fact I was literally face deep in boob, I noticed a warmth and pulsing in my ear. It was her heartbeat.

“Do you hear that, love?” She asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“It’s my heart, it beats only for you. I love you so much! I never want to be away from you.”

I never realized before how much the Leanan Sidhe was actually in love with me.Up until now I just thought I was a lust filled fling to her. She only takes worthy lovers once every few centuries or so and it seemed she was fully into me this time. I’ll admit, it was a pretty amazing feeling.

“Lance, do I have your word? That you will be alright? That you will be safe?” she asked.

“Yes, you have my word,” I said without hesitation. Wait, what did I just say? My head was becoming all fuzzy.

“You must go now, my Darling. You have work to do,” she said, choking back tears and biting her lower lip. The love in her voice was even more noticeable now than it had ever been. “I’ll keep our proposal on hold for now and I will look after you from afar.” She took my head in her hands again and kissed my forehead. “There, now that wicked banshee out there won’t be able to hurt you.”

“How do you know about the banshee?” I asked.

“Oh, she’s been roaming around here for a while now,” she said. “But you don’t have to worry about her anymore.”

I could feel the energy around me, she must have cast some kind of illusion or shield spell on me. “Thank you, Leanan Sidhe,” I turned and walked away and looked back towards the faery who was so love sick over me and saw her give a little wave. I waved back, and could have sworn I saw a tear run down her cheek. I didn’t even know fae could cry. Now I felt like shit for making her cry. Damnit.

* * *

I got back to my waypoint safely thanks to Leanan Sidhe’s spell. I waved a hand with some magic behind it and saw my wards were untouched. That was good. Nothing had attempted to get into my way back home. I gave a quick look around to make sure nothing was around me, dropped my wards and walked back through my portal. The same sensation from when I arrived in Faewild overcame me again going back to the mundane world. As soon as I saw I was back in my apartment I stepped into my living room, or what counted as it, and immediately broke the circle with my foot and closed the portal. The candles had burned down to almost nothing. Talk about good timing.

“Hey, sir!” Puck shouted as he fluttered into the room. “Wow you were gone all day! Your phone thingy was ringing the whole time and you have several messages from that Green peacekeeper person, who’s not actually green.” Puck was still talking, but I couldn’t hear any of it. I was too tired from the journey.

I crashed on the couch and turned on the TV as I continued to ignore Puck on what he was up to all day. Something about seeing how fast he could make a lap around the apartment. I turned to the news to see if there was anything happening that the detective would be calling me over.

“...police are unsure what exactly is causing this mass devastation but hope to replace the perpetrator soon,” the news reporter finished her story.

And there it was on the news, a few more dead bodies were found. Just like Leanan Sidhe said would begin to happen. It would just keep feeding and killing.

Shit.

Now I had to figure out how to stop it without killing its host and before it destroys my city. I looked over at the clock and saw it was after midnight. I closed my eyes and hoped I would think of something better in the morning. Shit, I just remembered, I have to solve this and give Leanan Sidhe an answer on her marriage on top of it within a few days.

Fuck me.