This is my masterpiece! I've tried to set it up the same way that Kim Harrison has, so if there's a LOT of back story, which there is, then just keep that in mind. That being said, all rights are reserved to Kim Harrison. It is just my little thoughts as to what I think should happen in the next book, but since I'm a Rachel/Al fan, I doubt that this will be the case.
Annoyed, I puffed at a stray stand of hair that fell onto my eyes from the rushed pony tail. It was a half hearted attempt to control my tangled mass of fiery red curly hair. It was dusk. Finally. The lines would be open to travel soon and it had been a long tiring day in the ever-after. Al had accomplished almost nothing in the 24 hours that he had every week to train me as his student, though at least I knew the idea behind what was needed to transfer auras. It was information that I would need for when I took on a new familiar.
Trent Kalamack had been almost pleasant since the moonlight ride a few months ago. It was not a fond memory of mine since I had ridden down another person, Jonathan. Even if he was total scum and deserved a painful death, I still felt troubled about it. I had been in that same situation, not once but twice. Playing fox to the hounds of The Hunt was not something that I would wish even on my worst enemy. Jonathan wasn't my worst enemy, even if he did try to kill me more then once, it was still a terrible and terrifying way to go. He must have regretted his actions in the end, when he found out Trent, a friend and fellow elf, rode The Hunt against him.
Shuddering at the memory, I continued stacking the demon texts that I had used that day where Al, or more likely Pierce, would replace them after I had been returned home. The only room in the house that I wasn't allowed to visit alone was, of course, the one room that I longed to spend some very alone time in; the library, which I had only set foot in once. It was a grand vast room lined with volumes upon volumes of text from ages past, some so ancient that they were little more then scrolls of papyrus scratched with ink. The room held darkness to it, even as I wanted desperately to be enclosed within its walls. The library, the grandest of all the rooms of Al's home, or so he had told me, was one of many which were sold off when he had to raise funds to make bail and get out of demon jail. I was eventually forgiven. Unknowingly helping him gain the return of said library when he sold a member of the Witches Council, Brook, was a definite contribution. Trent, however, was not so forgiving about being left behind in the ever-after in a cell along side Al.
Sighing, I looked down at the beautiful mirror that I brought with me from home. Looking back up at me was a fiery redhead with enchanting green eyes in the dim lighting, my pale skin creamy and flawless. I had taken to dressing cooler for my trips here since Al had me standing or working near the hearth. Today's choice was a plain comfortable back t-shirt sporting white letters spelling "Bite Me", a gift from Jenks, a pair of old blue jeans and some of my old sneakers. I tended not to bother dressing up for my trips here.
As I gazed back at myself I found myself thinking about to all the dark things that I was responsible for, things that I put so many people through in order to save my own skin. It was really starting to get to me. Things like allowing Brook to be sold off to some demon after her multiple attempts to blackmail me into submission or threaten to lobotomize me and harvest my ovaries for her own use. Or like Trent, who was coerced into being bound to me as my demon familiar in order to escape the auction block himself. Really, I have forgiven him for trying to crack my skull open as soon as we got back, honest. That did not keep him from trying to own me on my side of the lines since I owned him on this side.
Pierce appeared beside my reflection in the mirror, his reflection looking back up at me as mine smiled up at him. "Mistress witch, you have a look as though there are dark thoughts about you. What troubles you so?" His dark hair was on the shaggy side, but it never seemed to be long enough to need a cutting. I guess that was part of the demon curse that kept him looking like him in the body that strictly speaking wasn't. Even if the former occupant was officially dead, it was still unnerving to know that he was the disguise, a curse twisted to mask the dead witch whose body his soul now inhabited. Another "accident" that I was to blame for. Another witch's life abruptly brought to an end after dealing with the demons here in the ever-after.
Shaking my head and smiling I looked up from the mirror to the real him and couldn't keep the sigh from coming out in a puff, "Nothing that I haven't already thought about a hundred times or so. Nothing that I can change, so nothing I'm going to worry about." I almost sounded down right perky.
"Ah, but you can change some things, can you not?" His steel gray eyes darted to the stack of texts beside my mirror before returning them my face smiling a lop-sided smile.
"Yeah, I guess you're right, even if I don't know exactly how to do it yet," I replied teasingly with a wider smile. You would have thought my face brightened the kitchen lit only by the fire cackling in the fireplace behind us and the soft candle light in the candelabrum on the table by the way Pierce reacted to it.
Al scoffed quietly from the counter on the other side of the table, his back to us. He wore his usual crushed green velvet frock that sported elegant white lace at his throat and wrists, long brown hair, white gloves and smoked glasses. A curse twisted a thousand years ago by my predecessor. He spoke in his British accent that could be heard perfectly clear in the quiet of the room. "She knows exactly how to do it." He turned to gaze at me over the glasses with his red goat slit eyes, a condescending smirk spread across his handsomely spelled face. Those eyes looked alien in his face, but truthfully I had gotten over the shock of them long ago, and now they were just simply his. "She is just being squeamish since she's already had two human familiars." He inclined his chin slightly, "or would that be a human and an elf?" He chuckled and turned back to replacing one item at a time into cupboards even when I felt my face darkened. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Pierce turn his face away not wanting to make an open display of anger at the demon. A wise move considering the shaky ground he stood on already with his master.
Resisting the urge to slam the last book down, I placed it on top of the pile and gathered up the three candles that I had brought with me. A gold pillar candle represented my aura, as smudged as it was with the smut from the curses I had been twisting over the past year. The second was a dull gray pillar candle for purpose. The last was white, the same as it had been the week before, and the week before that. I didn't have a colored one for the person that I wanted to make a familiar. Namely: no one.
"I'm ready whenever you are, Big A," I threw his informal nick-name at the demon casually, letting him hear the annoyance in my voice that I wasn't completely able to hold back. He had just enough time to flash me a dashing smile over his shoulder before my attention was drawn to Pierce as he cleared his throat.
I studied the witch carefully. His head was down studying the table, or perhaps the floor, refusing to meet my eyes, his hands lay flay on the table hard enough that his hands were visibly whiter, and every muscle screamed tension. I almost asked what the Turn was his problem when I also noticed the nervous look on his face, and the slight darkening of his cheeks that almost went hidden in the dim lighting. What the Turn indeed.
"Mistress witch, would you grant me the honor of accompanying you to your home this evening?" His voice was tight, unnatural, and he still wouldn't meet my eyes.
Sighing exasperated I nodded. "Yeah, that'd be nice."
I glanced back at Al, who was relaxing comfortably against the cleared counter watching our little exchange grimly. Before I could ask, Al spoke up from his perch, arms crossing and face spreading into a wide smile, "Of course the young gelding can see you safely home." My eyes flickered between the two men and finally settled back on the demon. "Now be sure to hurry, we've much work to do now, don't we pet?" My temper flared at 'pet', but it was short lived when Pierce finally looked up and nodded curtly to his master, his jaw clenched and eyes burning angrily. Silently he gathered my few materials into one arm and offered me the other, his eyes never leaving the demon across from us. Chivalry at its best; born and bread a hundred years ago when he died. They just didn't make many like that anymore, and Pierce was the real deal.
With a little wave of a gloved hand Al watched as I took Pierce's offered arm. I sent a look to the demon, a mixture of questioning and annoyance. Then all there was for me was the familiar jerk followed by the awe inspiring sensation of traveling the lines.
There it is! Chapter 2 soon to come after I finish tweaking it, maybe sooner then I think. R&R as always!