A/N: I suck so bad, I am so sorry. I put this update off far too long and I know it. I promise, I didn't give up on you all! I'm just getting started, guys :) Thanks for you're sweet reviews, they make my day every time. The next chapter will probably live up to the M rating, so prepare yourselves. I hope this chapter makes up for the unnecessarily long wait.
Thanks to 'The Unaligned' for planting the idea of the Nixies crushing Bo's car. I twisted it a bit and made it fit my story!
Disclaimer: Show and characters...not mine, not mine, not mine.
Light streamed in through the wide window, dancing off of the ripples of the water below, as the Valkyrie stirred from her sleeping position on the leather couch. She squeezed her eyes tight to wake herself up and went to rise from the sofa. Though, to her utter surprise, she was pinned to the leather by a sleeping succubus, sprawled out across her body. Realizing this, the blonde's eyes shot wide and she felt her whole body stiffen in defense, walls building up, once again.
Feeling the rise and fall of Tamsin's chest increase in speed beneath her, Bo reluctantly lifted her dazed eyes to meet the other woman's gaze. Her face immediately transformed into concern as she took in the panicked look in the older fae's captivating green eyes.
"Tamsin? What's wrong, am I hurting you?" The succubus quickly became flustered, trying to figure out what could possibly be causing the Valkyrie to react this way. She shifted her weight so that she was wedged between the back of the couch and the blonde but kept her right arm draped over her sofa-mate's chest, hand resting cautiously across her shoulder.
Tamsin quickly recovered from her initial shock of waking up to the brunette's body being in such contact with hers. She cleared her throat before responding, "Not a chance, succulet. Comfy?" She ended with her legendary smirk, thrown in Bo's direction.
"Very, actually." Bo grinned and swirled her index finger in tight circles on the blonde's shoulder. She felt Tamsin's body tense again.
The Valkyrie rolled her eyes and sighed. "Great. Now get off me, we've got a case to solve." She squirmed from Bo's hold and sauntered towards the bedroom. "I need a shower. Try not to break anything while I'm gone, would ya?"
Seconds later, she disappeared through the door, leaving the succubus pouting, inwardly, on the couch. Part of her wished she could join the blonde in her shower...Okay, maybe a little more than just 'part'...
Bo shook her head, clearing her thoughts, and got up from her position on the couch with a sigh. She walked to the kitchen, dragging her feet. After grabbing a glass from one of the cupboards, the brunette began filling it with water from the sink. While doing this, she happened to glance out the window before her and her heart sank at the sight.
There, in the drive, was the remnants of her beloved yellow Camero. Glass was scattered all around, accompanied by a good amount of ripped metal shards. As she took in the wreckage, something on what used to be the right side mirror caught her eye.
Looking closer, she discovered it was a bright purple flower clinging to the metallic mass. The succubus shrugged it off, though. Probably just blew in with the storm last night.
She puffed out her bottom lip and turned away from the window, not wanting to see the horrible bits left before her. Realizing that she was still sporting her bathing suit from yesterday, she decided it was probably time to get changed.
She promptly made her way to the bedroom and over to her duffle, still on the bed, where she left it yesterday. After pulling out a pair of black leather pants, a dark blue tank top, and a black lace bra to wear, she hesitated, glancing at the closed bathroom door.
She decided to go for it, shedding the t-shirt and shorts that Tamsin had thrown at her last night. She pulled the shirt over her head slowly, inhaling the scent of the blonde it belonged to. She slid out of her bikini bottoms and quickly slipped into her tight, leather pants, underwear not included, as per usual.
Just as the brunette untied her bikini top and discarded it across the room, the bathroom door opened and a towel-clad Valkyrie stepped out. When the blonde looked up at the sight before her, her jaw hit the floor and her demeanor faltered for a split second before she quickly recovered, stitching her trademark smirk back in its place.
"You just gonna stand there flashing me or do you plan on getting dressed sometime in the next century...not that I don't enjoy a good show, but you may have forgotten, we've got some Nixie bitches to catch." Tamsin cocked an eyebrow at the stunned succubus before continuing out the bedroom door.
Bo scrambled to throw the remainder of her clothes on her half naked body, pulled her knee high leather boots on over her pants, and strapped her sheathed dagger to her thigh. After tying half of her hair back swiftly and tugging on her leather jacket, she stepped through the door and back into the living room.
Tamsin was finishing the knot on one of her black combat boots when the brunette entered the room. She looked up at the younger fae and grinned, like she knew a secret that no one else did.
"I see you finally decided to cover up. Not that the look wasn't flattering on you, but nudity isn't really suitable for hiking out here." She shot the blushing succubus a wink before standing to her feet.
The Valkyrie's blonde locks were already slicked back in their usual bun. She wore dark jeans and a sea-foam green leather jacket over a basic white t-shirt. Her gun was safe and sound in its holster on her belt and Bo could see the faint outline of some unknown and likely very lethal weaponry strapped across her chest beneath the leather.
"So what exactly are we dealing with here?" Bo wondered aloud as the two made their way out the back side door.
"When Nixies travel to a new place, they instinctively gravitate towards the cleanest fresh water. They are able to walk on dry land but only for a limited time. It's part of their hunting technique. They leave the water just long enough to grab the attention of a passing camper or hiker, then lure him back to their river where he is dragged to his death at the bottom of the water. The spot we're looking for is a well-known Nixie river, passed through generations of the little sluts." Tamsin paused in her tale to let Bo process the new information.
"What's the Nixies fae power? Like, how do they hunt and get hikers to follow them?" The brunette wanted to be fully prepared for whatever they were about to walk into.
The Valkyrie grinned. "They don't usually have a problem getting people to follow them. They may be bitches, but they're damn captivating. But, in the rare case that someone doesn't come to them willingly, they have 'dazzle powers', if you will. They blow streams of energy persuasion and charm that can make their victims do just about anything that they want. The energy comes out like a faint whistle, similar to a siren but not as strong and with a slightly different effect. They're a bit like a watered down version of a succubus, actually. Manipulative, lust driven demons that use their charm and good looks to take people out." The blonde smirked over at Bo, who glared at her in mock offense.
The two had been walking at a steady pace on a beaten trail for a good while when Tamsin stopped and knelt down on the edge of the path. The brunette followed suit, not sure of what was happening. She watched as the Valkyrie pushed some fallen leaves aside from the brush to reveal a brilliant purple flower, identical to the one Bo had seen in the wreckage of her car.
"This way." Tamsin pointed in the direction beyond the flower and rose up to begin walking again, this time off the trail.
Bo was becoming more confused by the minute. She hopped to her feet and scurried after the blonde.
"What's with those flowers? I saw one on my car...well, what's left of my car, this morning." Bo just about ran into Tamsin as the older fae stopped in her tracks, spinning around to look the even more confused succubus in the eye.
"You saw that exact flower on the crushed car? Are you sure?" Her green eyes narrowed as they bore into the chocolate brown ones of the brunette in front of her.
"Yeah, positive. Why, what's going on, Tamsin?" Bo was beginning to get concerned at the reaction of the Valkyrie.
Tamsin's face painted itself with an annoyed smirk. She crossed her arms and shook her head in disbelief. "Those little bitches..." She scoffed out. After a miniscule pause, she spun on her heal and stomped off in the direction she had been walking.
"Tamsin! Tell me what the hell is going on!" Bo stumbled to keep up with the enraged woman in front of her. She had no idea what was going on and was determined to find out.
"The audacity of those sluts, to think they can fuck with a trained Valkyrie and the unaligned succubus, of all people! I mean, they must have a bloody death wish, unless they're just plain stupid!" Tamsin fumed as she leaped over a fallen log.
"Wait, the Nixies created that storm? They killed my car!? Tell me what's going on, Tamsin, you can't just leave me in the dark!"
"Yes! Are you that slow, do I have to spell it out for you?" The enraged Valkyrie halted in her mission and spun to look at the brunette behind her.
"But how? I thought they just fed off lust and attraction?" The succubus' eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she tried to process this. Tamsin sighed and began walking again, this time at a more rational pace, Bo flanking her right, waiting for an explanation.
"There is only one line of Nixies that have that sort of power. They're descendants of an ancient circle of powerful Germanic warlocks. Centuries ago, a group of adolescent Nixies charmed this circle and used them for breeding purposes before dragging them to their watery graves. Somehow the warlocks' genes fused with the Nixies' in reproduction instead of overpowering them or becoming overpowered themselves. When that generation of Nixies was born, they not only possessed the expected Nixie abilities, but had inherited magic from their fathers. Realizing this, they kept their bloodlines very tight, only breeding with each other or the occasional wandering warlock, to keep their powers strong."
"So basically we're dealing with the one group of Nixies that is more lethal and dangerous than the rest of them? Naturally, we would get stuck with this." Bo felt a twinge of anxiety as she thought of what lied ahead of her.
"Yeah, succulet, that's exactly what I'm saying. But they're not full warlocks, so they can't just do any magic that they please. They only have control over certain aspects. For example, weather. They can control and create any precipitation, though I've heard they can only cause large fluctuations when acting as a group. That kind of passed down from the warlocks too, the more powerful the magic, the more participants required. From what I remember, it takes a lot out of them too. So, my guess, judging from the size of our storm last night, they're going to be pretty damn drained." Tamsin took a breath and glanced over at Bo, who seemed to be soaking up all of this information. The blonde could practically see the gears moving in her skull. She couldn't help but grin at how cute the succubus' thinking face was. 'Whoa, cute? What the fuck is wrong with me!?' The Valkyrie cleared her throat and averted her eyes from the brunette to her right.
"Shit. This is great, anything else I should know about these things before we meet up with one? So far this doesn't sound as easy as planned." Bo looked back to the older fae, hoping to get some way of how to defeat these things or at least defend herself from them. She noticed the blonde's aura fluctuating as she caught her eye, causing both of them to blush.
"They're fast," Tamsin began, trying to clear the not-so-G-rated thoughts that had sprung up unexpectedly from her mind, "and they're sneaky. They're very manipulative and don't have an honest bone in their bodies, so don't trust any of them. No matter what, if you hear their songs or their whistles, cover your ears. If you listen to them for a minimum of eight seconds, you are under their spell, and it's nearly impossible to get out of it. Whatever you do, succubus...don't follow them anywhere, I really don't feel like swimming to the bottom of a Nixie river to rescue your ass." The blonde gave Bo a sarcastic, pleading look that quickly morphed into a smirk.
The brunette ignored her comment. She slowed her pace and listened intently. Tamsin did the same, letting her bounty-hunter-trained hearing guide her towards the sound of running water that was quickly gathering volume.
"Through here..." The blonde muttered in a low voice, turning to a weeping willow tree ahead to their left, moving the long branches aside and stepping into a small clearing that surrounded a narrow, flowing river.
The Valkyrie had to admit, it was a beautiful sight. The clear water swirled around large stones that jutted into the river. The bank was blanketed with a plush coat of the greenest grass either of them had ever seen that sparkled with dew in the sunlight that peaked through the leaves of overhead trees. There were four other willow trees in sight – one to their right and three on the opposite side of the water.
"My, my...a battle Valkyrie, in the flesh. Haven't seen one of those since leaving home all those centuries ago." A smooth voice sounded behind the girls, causing them to jump and whirl around, weapons in hand. They came face to face with a dazzlingly beautiful woman, no less that three feet from where they stood.
The woman appeared to be in her late twenties or early thirties, but that was obviously not the case, since she had just mentioned 'centuries'. She wore nothing but a small, tan cloth tied around her waist. Her olive skin shone, as if she had just come from the water. She had big, hazel eyes that sparkled like the dew on the grass around them as she examined the women before her. Black hair cascaded over her bare shoulders and fell, shimmering, across her chest in loose, twisting waves that continued to her knees.
Bo noticed her strong bone structure, similar to that of the Valkyrie beside her. Her cheekbones were slightly higher than the blonde's and her jaw was thinner, yet just as beautifully defined. Her perfectly angled nose and naturally light pink lips fit her thin face superbly. 'Damn! Is every Teutonic fae species as stunning as these two?' The succubus flit her eyes from the mystery woman's face to Tamsin's for a brief second, suddenly feeling rather self-conscious between the two.
"Yeah, well, we don't exactly show up to fae reunions, do we," Tamsin spat out, "and we tend to avoid contact with your...particular breed of sluts." The Valkyrie's eyes narrowed in on the Nixie, who merely chuckled softly at Tamsin's insult.
"Oh, please. You'll make me blush, darling...what's a warrior like yourself doing way out here? With a succubus, no less," the Nixie woman picked up a strand of her black locks and began twisting it around a long index finger.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Bo's eyes mimicked Tamsin's, narrowing at the woman. Tamsin cut her off before she received an answer, but the Nixie slid a sly, knowing glance in Bo's direction.
"Last I checked, that's our business, none of yours. Now, call off your whores, we don't want a mess, now, do we?" Not understanding what the blonde meant, Bo shot her eyes towards Tamsin, confused. Her confusion didn't last, though. As she looked to her right, she caught movement in her peripheral vision. She spun around, pressing her back against Tamsin's, dagger at the ready.
Three more Nixies had appeared behind them, a forth already rising from the flowing water, without a sound. The two farthest to the left crept forward, shoulder to shoulder, towards Tamsin's back-turned right side. Both had sparkling blue eyes, rimmed in a faint purple and hair as blonde as Tamsin's, maybe even lighter. One had loose waves, the other with hundreds of tight curls.
Directly in front of Bo, the Nixie that had risen from the water had just landed on the bank. Her dark orange hair, already nearly dried, stretched, pin straight, down the length of her small body. The deep green of her stunning almond eyes peeked out from her densely freckled, pale skin and contrasted beautifully with her thick, ginger locks.
The closest Nixie to where Bo stood, was to her direct right. She was taller than the others and obviously very graceful. Her medium olive skin was sprinkled with a few light freckles across the bridge of her nose and cheeks. Her eyes, narrowed slightly with curiosity, were a pale, piercing blue, even more so than Kenzi's. Looking closely, Bo noticed a slight red hue around the inner iris, surrounding her pupils. She had blindingly white hair that tumbled down her body in loose, unorganized curls. She moved cautiously, but was undoubtedly strong, fierce, and lethal.
Otherwise, the four newly-surfaced Nixies were like the first. Thin, toned, and sneaky. They all wore the same piece of tan cloth around their waist and had hair that reached their knees and framed their brilliant bone structure. They were all breathtaking but still slightly terrifying.
"They're merely curious. It's not often we get such rare fae as the two of you in our territory. But, if you insist..." Tamsin watched the dark haired Nixie give a wave of her dainty fingers. Feeling Bo's tensed muscles relax a bit against her back, she assumed the others had halted in their advance. But, seconds later, she felt those muscles stiffen again and she shot the woman a glare.
"All of them." The Valkyrie's voice was dripping intimidation as she fought the urge to turn and slaughter whoever dared come towards them in threat.
The first Nixie raised her chin and her face became stern. She spoke with an air of power and superiority, "Aloysia. That is an order."
Bo watched as the white haired Nixie stopped and took two small steps back. She stood straight, arms at her sides, head tilted to the side as she took in the two horribly outnumbered fae women.
"You'll have to pardon her. She's always looking for a chance at action and she can get a bit ahead of herself. My name is Ricarda, but you may call me Rikka." The dark haired woman spoke gently but authoritatively, bowing her head as a gesture of respect and welcome. 'Well, now I know who's in charge...' Tamsin thought to herself as she recognized both names and recalled their meanings.
"The eager one that your friend cannot seem to look away from is Aloysia, my daughter. The two to your right that you are so concerned about, dear Valkyrie, are Valda and Tora, two of my guard. The last to have risen is Asvoria, my right hand." Rikka gestured to each Nixie as she said their names, giving a respectful nod to the red head, Asvoria.
"Well, since you know so much about my sisters and I, then you already know I'm not spilling my name." Tamsin scrunched up her face as she spoke.
Rikka chuckled lightly and shook her head, "You Valkyries and your attitudes, my goodness. I'd almost forgotten how defensive you lot could get!" Ricarda walked gingerly around the two women, Tamsin's eyes and gun following her every step, until she was in front of Bo.
The Nixie looked Bo up and down, taking in every detail of her appearance. It made the brunette rather uncomfortable.
"And what about you, succubus? What's your name, dear?" Rikka asked softly, her face relaxed. She took a step towards Bo and reached her hand up as if to touch Bo's cheek, earning a low, barely audible growl from the Valkyrie who stepped forward, eyes shooting daggers at the Nixie.
Seeing Tamsin's advance, the blonde Nixie with curls, Tora, snarled menacingly, taking three long, swift strides towards the blonde Valkyrie. She took a protective stance between her leader and the now very pissed off Tamsin, teeth bared and eyes narrowed.
Valda, the other blonde, had taken a few steps forwards and was crouched on the ground like a jungle cat ready to pounce. Asvoria leaped ahead, landing behind Ricarda's left shoulder and scowled at Bo, anticipating a fight. Aloysia, Rikka's daughter, sprung towards the brunette with a loud hiss and stood strongly between her mother and the on-edge succubus. Tamsin curled her right arm around Bo's front and pushed the younger fae behind her body.
The Valkyrie chuckled darkly, "Big mistake, bitches. You'd think someone who's had run-ins with my kind before would've learned...Don't mess with a Valkyrie." With that, Tamsin felt the shadows taking over her features. She tilted her head and looked directly at Tora who screeched back at her at a deafening frequency.
Valda charged towards the skeletor blonde in an attempt to save her partner but stopped short when she was met by the shining blue eyes of the succubus who appeared between her and the Valkyrie.
"Think really hard about your next move, bitch." Bo stepped slowly towards the snarling Nixie as she sunk into a crouch. Just as Valda was about to pounce, a strong voice rang out over the commotion.
"Enough!" Rikka shrieked. Valda recoiled and slowly crept backwards, her glare never leaving the brunette. Bo cautiously turned to check on Tamsin but instead of seeing the bright green irises of the blonde, she was met with a pair of piercing blue and red eyes, inches from her own. Aloysia stood, battle ready, arm raised with a small dagger above Bo's head. Wondering why the dagger had not plunged into her body, Bo noticed Rikka's hand, tight around her daughter's wrist, preventing it from further motion.
"Now, Aloysia!" Rikka ordered the white haired Nixie, who reluctantly lowered her weapon and obediently backed away.
Bo scanned the area for Tamsin, but with no luck. "Where is she!" Bo growled at the pack of Nixies before her. Tora, flanking Rikka's right side, looked over the brunette's shoulder and grinned slyly. Bo spun around briefly, but there was no one there. "What the hell are you loo-," Bo began, but was cut short when she turned back around.
Rikka, Aloysia, Tora, and Valda were nowhere to be seen. Instead, she watched as the freckle-faced Asvoria, smiling seductively, lead an eerily all-too-willing Tamsin to the edge of the bank.
A/N: Okay, I have a serious issue with cliffhangers and I apologize. This was going to keep going but it was getting too long so I'm stopping it here. But, fear not, my little darlings! This means that I already have a good start to the next chapter and, if I keep writing at the rate I am right now, I might even have it up before tomorrow! :) No promises though...
Also, I basically made up most of the Nixie lore because it's very difficult to find stuff about them. They are Teutonic, they do live in water, they do draw people to them with their songs, and they do drag them to the bottom of the water. The rest of the details were pretty much my imagination.
I spent a lot of time choosing the names for the Nixies, I wanted them to be realistic. The names are all Teutonic and they were chosen to describe each personality. Ricarda means 'strong leader' and Rikka means 'tranquil leader'. Aloysia means 'famous in battle'. Valda and Tora mean 'spirited in war' and 'thunder' and Asvoria means 'divine wisdom'.
Hope you enjoyed, thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! They make my world spin!
xRiver