Monster Baiter (An Obscure Magic Book 6) (3 page)

The shark-like, pointed teeth didn’t even make her flinch.

He couldn’t open her spell books. He had tried several times. They shocked him with huge arcs of power.

She had gone to the store, brought in a mer-to-English dictionary and a huge stack of history books and magazines.

He had spent his days reading and learning about the modern world. When he was done with that, she had given him a clothing allowance and sent him out on his own.

He had found every bar that catered to adventurous sexuality and located his particular niche. His niche involved a lot of glitter and very good-looking men who could hold their own with a merman out of water.

“I think you need to stop with the research and jump in with both feet. Somewhere else.”

“I think we get on well as roommates.”

She winced. “I never wanted a roommate. I wanted you to learn to speak the language so you would feel more at home. I didn’t mean
my
home!”

She started to strip while he stood there. He quickly left her alone.

Sophy washed out the tub before adding bubble bath and watching it churn into a white, gleaming froth that she slid into with a happy sigh.

“Fuck.” She grimaced at the glass of wine that she had left on the bathroom counter. She wasn’t a fan of domestic magic, but it turns out she didn’t need it.

“I brought you some brownies, and here is your wine.” Delwin set the wine on the wide edge of the tub and placed the small plate of brownies next to them.

“You baked?”

He smiled. “No, one of my new beaus is a pastry chef. When I told him you were an accountant, he got all sympathetic about your current stress level. He sent these along. I only ate two.” He winked.

She sighed. “Thank you. I appreciate the gesture, but I stand by my statement. You need to get out on your own.”

He crouched next to the tub. “I know. This world is just so full of everything. The ocean is huge, vast and wide expanses between communities. Here, I feel lost in a sea of living beings. It is enough to make me scared on a daily basis. I like living with you. It gives me a sheltered alcove from the storm of the city.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Fine. Pay rent, get a job and stay out of my tub. If you are good, I will get you a soaker of your own. This deal changes if you are caught in my territory again. If I have to put up a ward against you for my private space, I will.”

He grinned again. “Thank you. You won’t regret it.”

She snagged a brownie, held her wine and sank back into the hot water and bubbles. “I probably will. Out!”

He leaned forward, kissed her cheek and left her alone.

Sophia nibbled at the brownie and sipped at her wine. It seemed that when exhausted and confronted with chocolate, she was a pushover. At least he did the housekeeping.

Sophia was into her fourth return of the day when she got a call.

“Is this the Cursed One?”

She winced at the name but answered. “Yes. At your service.”

“I have need of your services. My name is Lerovan Assingar, and we have a situation with some rogue minotaur in our area.”

“Sir, I think you would need to call the XIA for that. I only do curses.”

“One of them has gone insane. I don’t want him injured.” The older man’s voice wavered. “They are my sons.”

She silently cursed. “The XIA is a better bet.”

“It was only supposed to be one of them. They weren’t supposed to change together.”

She knew thirty-four extranatural languages, and each one was chanting
shit
in her mind. “Give me your address.”

“Durban road, the house with the red roof near Morrigan Way.”

She nodded as she jotted it down. “I can be there in an hour.”

“Thank you so much.”

Sophia organized the return she was working on, clipped all categories together and walked over to her father’s office.

He saw her face and sighed. “You got a call?”

“I did.”

“Dangerous?”

“I have no idea until I get there. You know the drill.”

He sighed. “Yeah. Times like this I wish I was born a girl.”

Sophy grinned. “That is just because you want to drop the work and go running through the woods in search of monsters.”

“Definitely. Have you gotten the file in order?”

“Yup. Just ready for final entry. The file has been transferred to your computer.”

“Thanks. Have fun and keep us posted if you need any help. We will do what we can.”

She smiled and made sure that he had everything before she left. In the car, she brought up myths and legends on her audio system, and on the way, she learned all she could about minotaur.

The minotaur were beasts, well, one beast in particular. They weren’t a species; they were a demigod. One horny queen was cursed, and the form of the curse was her lust for the sacred bull that her husband refused to sacrifice. The end result was the minotaur.

Every seven years, seven Athenian youths and seven maidens were sent as tribute, and they were dumped into the labyrinth to try and run for their lives. None of them escaped, but it seemed that at least one woman of the final batch managed to come out of it with a child. The curse continued.

She kept driving and asked, “Cross-reference shifter archives.”

“Minotaur is not available in shifter archives.”

“Mage archives.”

“Not available in mage archives.”

Sophia bit her lip. “Reference minotaur in mythical archive.”

“Result. Minotaur, family name Assingar. Curse transfers to eldest son on his twenty-fifth birthday. See also, god curses.”

She made a face at her research computer.

“I saw that, Sophia.”

“Apologies, Magnus.”

“Accepted.” Her computer hummed happily.

Having an intelligent computer had been a great idea, but having a soul bonded to it was a bit of a surprise. She was used to him now, but Magnus was a tricky customer that wanted her to show appreciation now and then.

He was embedded into her computer system, and she could access him from any monitor anywhere. He followed her like a puppy. He also stalled her car on command. It was handy when stalking cursed humans.

He wasn’t the same as Benny’s Pooky, but it got the job done.

She smiled slightly as the thought reminded her of the unusual wedding that she had bought a one-time-only dress for. Benny’s quad union was unusual, but it had been well worth the cost of the outfit.

Out of all the friends that she had thought might end up in a poly union, Benny hadn’t even made it into the top twenty. Demon spawn or not, she was just a little on the quiet side.

Sophy sighed and thought about her own options.

“Why the sigh, Sophy?”

“Just thinking about my lack of a love life. When my dad was my age, I was five. It is weird to think that my time should be running out.”

“Do the Cursed Ones go through early menopause?” Magnus’s voice was dry.

“Funny. No. Not that I know of. We look the same until we die, stuck forever with youth and beauty. Or so I am told.”

“You are very beautiful.”

“I am the combination of my parents’ genes. But, thank you.”

“If I was still around, I would be courting you this minute.”

She blinked. That was the first time he had made any kind of flirting reference. “How long have you been dead? Courting dates you in the previous century.”

“I met your great, great grandmother shortly before I was taken.”

“Taken?”

“Yes, I disobeyed guild rules, and this was my punishment.”

She made a face. “What did you do?”

“A conversation for another day. You are at your destination.”

Sophy blinked. “Oh. Right.”

She had nearly forgotten why she was there. With a low hum, she pulled into the driveway and rolled up toward the house.

The house was huge. Bull heads adorned all of the fence posts, were mounted on the garage and over the door. It was the right place.

When she left the car and headed for the house, the door opened and a huge man with dark hair walked toward her. Streaks of grey peppered his hair.

He paused. “Are you the assistant?”

She chuckled and extended her hand. “I am Sophia DeMonstre. The Cursed One.”

He took her small hand in his calloused grip, and she could feel him looking for power. She gave it to him.

He flinched and stepped back as the magic that clung to his body was stripped away from him at her whim. It was a fun trick that would last about an hour.

“What did you do?”

“I just proved who I was, Mr. Assingar. Now, tell me about what happened.”

He nodded and beckoned her to come inside. The house smelled of wood and the outdoors. Elemental earth magic was definitely in play in his family. It didn’t come from the male side, so perhaps, it was the mother of the children that made the difference.

“Where is your wife?”

He paused in the act of getting some lemonade out of the fridge. “She died when they were born. It is a common side effect of breeding with my family.”

“Do you have a family tree I can look at?”

He frowned. “I have an old family bible.”

She blinked. “May I see it?”

He nodded and left her alone with the lemonade while he disappeared into the recesses of his home.

She looked around at the pictures on the wall. It was he and his wife. Him and his two boys as babies, and then, the two boys together and one portion of the curse made sense. The boys were twins.

Twins were magical dynamite. One never knew when their link would blow the connection all to hell. With a family curse, the complications would be mindboggling.

Lerovan returned, and she hadn’t had any of the lemonade. He frowned. “You aren’t thirsty?”

She smiled and sipped without ingesting any of the liquid. It was a skill that she practiced over the course of years. A lot of the monsters liked to use drugs.

He smiled. “Right. So, here is the family bible. My sons were the last entry.”

She looked from the names of Dolin and Borik born to Jessica Yorful Assingar. Yorful.
Oh darn.

She fished out her phone and kept the volume down so that Magnus wouldn’t ask questions. She looked up the Mage Guild records and the Yorful bloodline. Yup. It was a family trait of split souls.

“Your wife was one of twins?”

He nodded. “Her twin died when she was a child. There was an accident.”

“Right. Not so accidental.” She pinched the bridge of her nose.

“What? Jessie always said it was an accident.”

“They always look like accidents. They aren’t accidents. Oh geez.”

Lerovan scowled. “What are you talking about?”

“Your boys are hostile toward each other?”

“Yes. Boys will be boys.”

“No, it is the same boy in two bodies. Normally, he would have killed the extra body by now. The homicide usually happens in childhood.”

“I don’t understand.”

She turned her phone to him and showed him. “You see this? This is the bloodline. It goes straight from either boy or girl. Only one child survives to adulthood, and the other is buried.”

“No. My boys will work this out.”

Sophy cocked her head at him. “If you thought so, why did you call me?”

He smiled suddenly, and it wasn’t a polite smile. “I needed to lure them in, and you are only bait that would come to me. The sedative should be kicking in shortly.”

She blinked at the lemonade and gave him a bland look. “I have no trouble being bait, but drugging me doesn’t work.”

He frowned. “You drank it. I saw it.”

Sophy shrugged. “I am going to get my gear and head into the woods.”

“You will not hurt them.”

“Of course not. I am going to lure them in to let them hurt each other. One needs to die. It is the family trait. You can’t change it. They will go mad if they continue aging, and then, the XIA will be at your door. You will lose both bodies, not just one.”

She got to her feet and headed to the door. He spun her around, and she saw his fist coming toward her. She ducked and drove her fist into his crotch with as much force as she could muster. She was pretty sure she crushed something under her knuckles.

With a deep sigh, she shook her hand out and left the house.

Sophy didn’t like what was going to happen next, but it was necessary for the safety of those in the area.

The trunk of her car opened as she approached, and she looked at the array of weapons and fabric. She stripped and changed into some wide-legged, loose trousers with a huge belt. Her torso was bare, with nothing but glyphs and markings painted on her skin. Her hair was back in a ponytail, and she was barefoot.

She called medics for Lerovan, warning them that they needed two vehicles, but one was going to be needed in less than an hour.

She took her long blades and strapped a dagger to one hip as she walked into the woods. She was perfectly content to be bait, but it was going to be on her terms.

Her first step into the woods snapped her into the enchantment. The words
welcome to the labyrinth
should have been printed on the trees.

The curse that made them minotaur wrapped the miles that surrounded them. Anyone foolish enough to get close would be trapped.

She walked into the woods and followed the path that her senses gave her. The quick change into semi-priestess garb would make them pause, but it wouldn’t stop them.

The glyphs on her arms tingled and warned her that he—or they—were near.

She looked around for a nearby rock, anything to get her a better vantage point. It took a few wrong turns, but she managed to get herself onto a wide, flat piece of granite. She knelt and chanted, calling to them, bringing them in.

The bellow in the woods made her tense, but she kept chanting. The spells that she needed were long and drawn out. Calling on the old gods was always a bit of a gamble. Pointing out a mistake in a long-standing curse was deadly dangerous.

The first blast of air from the first one’s lungs was soft. He was looking at her. She kept chanting, explaining her need.