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For what had started out as such a beautiful day, it had quickly turned into something unnerving and obscure. It seemed that this looming apocalyptic event would follow us around like a dark shadow until it was fully dealt with.
I felt bad for Makeysha. All I’d wanted to do was let her relax and enjoy our time together. I wanted to get to know her better and I wanted our bond to strengthen as much as possible before we ended up in the realms of Hell.
Now, she was facing the reality of being part human, which greatly reduced her chances of survival against the tests waiting for us in Lucifer’s twisted realm. As much as I joked about us becoming intimate, I didn’t want to take anything away from what it should mean. It shouldn’t be anything but two souls connecting, but the rate things were changing it was soon going to mean life or death for the both of us. I didn’t want to jump into bed with her for the sake of it—I wanted it to be as right as she did. After all, you only get one first time with someone.
“Back to Wanda?” I said, glancing back over my shoulder at the Hamelin Café.
Makeysha nodded.
Seeing Lasander scoot inside his building, I began to wonder if he was being genuine. We hurried back to Wanda’s, arriving in less than ten minutes. I burst through the front door and stopped dead in my tracks. Makeysha bumped into me as I’d blocked the entire doorway with my abrupt stop.
“What the...?” she said, as she peered over my left shoulder.
In front of me was Lucia, on her knees, scrubbing the wooden floor with a soft bristle brush and a bucket of soapy water.
“Have we stepped into a real-life version of Cinderella?” I whispered.
“Please be careful,” Lucia said, looking up at us. “The floor is wet and slippery. I would hate for you to slip and fall.”
Makeysha stifled a giggle.
Wanda came flying through from the living room doorway, her hair sticking up in all directions. I raised an eyebrow at her pink sweatpants and grey tank top.
“Oh hi,” she said, waving her duster at us. “Just doing some house chores. I didn’t expect you back so early. Everything ok?”
I held up the unicorn dagger. The tin of polish and the duster Wanda was holding clattered to the floor.
“Oh my,” she said, rushing forwards. “Where did you get that?”
“Lasander. He handed it over quite freely.”
“And,” Makeysha said. “We know that Lord Melrose’s dagger belonged to Gabriel. Can we see it and Lucia’s to figure out which three we have?”
Wanda’s mouth fell open. “Sounds like you’ve had quite the day. Let’s have some coffee whilst you fill me in.”
“The daggers,” Makeysha said. “Can you fetch the ones we already have?”
“Of course,” Wanda replied, giving her a warm smile. “Bring me up to speed first and then I’ll get them.”
Several minutes later, we sat on the sofas with steaming mugs of coffee in hand. Wanda listened intently as we told her what had happened with Lasander.
“I have to say, I’m not surprised. Elves are sly and loyal to no one but themselves. He obviously feels that we have a winning hand here. This is really good news.”
“It’s not though, is it?” Makeysha said. “Even though Lucifer needs all the daggers, the fact we have three of them only means he’s going to come after us with a greater vengeance. For all we know, Lasander is filling him in on what we do and don’t have. I don’t trust him.”
“You’re right not to,” Wanda said. “He will turn on you just as quickly as he has done Lucifer. But you can guarantee one thing—whilst he’s on your side, you can bet he’s weighed the odds in your favour.”
“Even if we retrieve all seven daggers,” I said. “Lucifer is still going to come after us. He’s always going to be intent on carrying out this crazy plan of his.”
“If we have all seven, that’s a lot of hassle. Combined with the fact of where we’re going to hide them, he has no chance of ever getting his grubby hands on them,” Makeysha said, giving me a reassuring smile.
“You think Lucifer is worried about ‘lots of hassle’?” I said.
“If he even discovers where we’ve hidden them, he’s not going to risk his life, seven times, by going after them,” she replied.
I scrunched my face up in confusion. “Have I missed something here?”
“Why?”
“Why would going after seven unicorns be life threatening for him?”
“Because they’re guarded by pixies.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Of course they are.”
Makeysha narrowed her eyes at my flat deadpan response. “Did I not mention that before?”
“Does this look like the face of a man who knows that deadly flying miniature ninja’s protect the thing he’s got to slit open to hide a sacred weapon inside of?”
She grinned at me. “I would say no.”
“Pixies,” I said, sounding the word out for my own sake. “Pixies protect unicorns. Of course they do. Do you know how much I hate them damn things?”
“Why? They’re an excellent ally if you can get them on side.”
“The key word there was ‘if’.”
“Leave them to me. We’ll be fine.”
I took a swig of my coffee and then asked, “Have you ever been stabbed by a pixie? Or rather, a swarm of pixie’s?”
“I can’t say that I have,” she replied, giving me a sly smirk.
“You do know that some hunters are allergic to the toxins they have laced their tiny little weapons with? And they’ve died within minutes.”
“Are you allergic to their toxins?”
“No...but I suffered some seriously disturbing hallucinations after being attacked by a horde of them. I was out of it for nearly a week trapped in my own living hell. That is not something I wish to revisit.”
“Awww, poor baby.” She wrapped a hand around my forearm and gave me a playful smile. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from the nasty little pixies.”
“You’re not funny.”
Wanda giggled into her coffee mug. “I think you’re missing a key point there.”
“What?” I said.
“Pixie’s are lethal to all living things—including supernatural creatures. Lucifer isn’t excluded from that judging from what Makeysha has just said.”
My brain kicked into overdrive. “So we could use them to what? Keep him at bay or something?”
“Better. Lock him inside Tartarus.”
“Whoa,” Makeysha said. “Now that’s a big step.”
“But it would work, and we would never have to worry about him coming after those daggers again.”
“Surely the fact that the pixies protect the unicorns would be enough,” Makeysha replied. “What’s the point in going through all the extra trouble?”
“Security. As long as he’s free, there’s always a chance he’s going to come after the daggers again. If you lock him away as well as hiding the daggers in the unicorns, then it’s like an extra layer of protection. It’s the fact he’s got to get out of Tartarus and then face a pack of pixies.”
“If he gets out of Tartarus, a load of pixies isn’t going to faze him,” Makeysha replied.
“That’s a fair point. But they are still capable of killing him?” Wanda said.
“If they make enough contact with him, yes. I personally know of three angels who have died from pixie attacks. It’s one of the hazards of catching a unicorn, unfortunately.”
“What makes you think you can deal with them?” I said.
“I saved their Queen from death a very long time ago. They are less hostile towards me than others, but they are very untrusting creatures. If I make one wrong move, they will attack me.”
“Don’t they have like a secret love or something?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know...like horses love carrots and apples and dogs love prime cuts of beef.”
“Lavender,” she said, a warm smile lighting up her golden eyes. “They’re always wearing lavender in some form. That’s their thing.”
“So give them a bunch of lavender as a sweetener.”
She gave me a look of disbelief. “They live in lavender fields.”
“Oh.”
“Yes,” she said, lifting an eyebrow. “However, lavender juice is something they struggle to make because of the processes involved. That could be a way in.”
“Lavender juice?” Wanda said, rubbing her chin between her thumb and forefinger.
Makeysha nodded.
“I can make lavender juice real easy.”
“This could work,” Makeysha said. “But I do feel like we’re making ourselves more work than necessary.”
“I think it would be good to have it as a back up plan. You know, keep it in mind,” I said. “We have no idea how the next few days are going to turn out. It could be our only option.”
“Ok,” she said. “Plus, the lavender juice will come in handy for getting close to the unicorns.”
“Speaking of unicorns,” I said, holding up an index finger like I was back in class. “How the hell are we supposed to get anywhere near them? Let alone hide something inside them?”
“Well, it’s a little bit tricky. You have to look them in the eye. Once you do that, they will instantly become calm and docile. The problem is getting them to catch your eye. They will do everything to avoid it.”
I wasn’t quite sure how a horse could avoid someone’s eye contact, but my knowledge of horses didn’t extend past knowing they had four legs, a head, and a tail. To me, the fact they had a horn protruding from their forehead made them nothing more than a horse with a horn. I found myself wishing I had some sort of an affinity with animals so I could guarantee neither of us would be impaled by an angry unicorn.
Then I had a dawning realisation. “Caesar!” I shouted, jumping to my feet in excitement. “If we find Caesar and get him on side, we can use him to control the unicorns.”
Makeysha looked up at me and grinned.
“Please tell me a wizard’s power will work on a sacred animal?” I said, trying to quash the rising hope inside me.
“It certainly will.”
“Then surely that’s all we need to do—he’s our answer.”
“I knew there was a reason the Universe tied me to you,” she said. “Good call.”
“So how do we find Caesar?”
Wanda cleared her throat. “I might be able to help with that.”
“Really?” I said. “How?”
“My father was a wizard...I inherited some of his abilities.”
I sucked in a deep breath. “Wanda...how did you...why...are you sure?”
“Very much so. He had to leave home when I was just a little girl, so I don’t remember much about him, but every now and then I get glimpses of him through the eyes of an animal. It’s almost as if they’re trying to let me know that he’s still alive and he’s ok.”
Cross-supernatural species breeding was a strictly off-limits area. The fact that Wanda even existed and had lasted on the earth as long as this was something of a miracle. No one knew why Lucifer didn’t permit cross-breeding, just that any hint of it was rapidly stomped out and the offspring destroyed.
“How have you...survived all these years?”
“Oh, I’m not alone,” Wanda said, smiling. “There are scores of us. Those who perished lacked the help of a witch or the essence of witch DNA. Thankfully, we had enough knowledge and support around us to hide ourselves from Lucifer and his demons.”
Wanda was quickly turning out to be a treasure chest of information. “Is there some way you can connect with other wizards or something then?” I asked.
“No, but I can project an image of him out into the minds of animals. When they respond positively, I simply lock on to their geographical location.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“It is.”
“It sounds complicated to me.”
“I promise you, it’s really not.”
“Do you need anything?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Just the usual. Map, candles, incense sticks, and some blood.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What blood?”
“My blood. The fact we share abilities means we’re connected, even though its remotely.”
It all sounded difficult and way out of my depth. “When can you do it?”
“I can do it now.”
I sat back down and wrung my hands together. “Well, only if it’s not too much trouble.”
“Nothing is too much trouble for you, dear.”
I smiled at her. “Thank you, Wanda. You have no idea how much I, we, appreciate this.”
Makeysha stood up and gave us both a flat smile. “I’m going to take a walk. I need some time to myself.”
Something deep in my gut wrenched tight. “Is that a good idea?”
“I’ll be fine. There’s just so much going on, I need time to digest it all and think things through. Come at it all from a different angle.”
Every instinct screamed at me to keep her by my side, but being the gentleman I am, I respected her wishes for some privacy. “If you need me, you call me straight away.”
“I will, but I’ll be ok.” She stepped forwards and took my hand. “Don’t let that dagger out of your sight.”
I arched my eyebrows in surprise. “What? Why?”
“Just promise me. Please?”
“Ok...are you sure you’re ok?”
“Yes. I just need an hour or two in my own space.”
She leaned forward and pressed a light kiss over my lips. Then, in the blink of an eye, she was gone.