Unified Fields: Demonworld, #6

Dedication

I dedicate this book to the person who sat looking at me across a conference table, five years ago, and asked me where I saw myself in five years. I told her that I would rather be writing books. And here I am.

Thank you, Marie Hutchinson. You let me get out of my head for a few years and gave me the space I needed to put my stories in order inside my head. The fact that I got paid while doing it was icing on the cake. Thanks for recommending some excellent books!

Other Books by Severine Wolfe

Demonworld

Dark Matters

Tangled Strings

Uncertain Principles

Complex Familiarity

Quantum Flux

Unified Fields

Urban Paladin

No Owner’s Manual

The Shield (Coming Winter 2017)

Shifting Alliancesi

Reborn Hope

Chapter One

She had been unsure about whether or not she should, or even could, return to the Demonworld, to work for a living. But, Ava was determined to find out rather than sitting around trying to figure out the vagaries of the microwave oven. She'd given it a chance. She'd watched internet videos when she could find someone to show her how to do that since she didn't read English and modern Arabic was not as familiar to her as she'd been gone nearly 300 years. She admitted it to only herself, but the reason she'd come back was that she didn't want to age before she decided what she wanted to do with her life. Hanging out and helping Brigid was a good buffer. Who knew? Perhaps she'd run into a man who caught her eye.

She wasn't different from the other women; she'd hated her time in the harem in Faisal's house. She'd learned early to just lay there and give them no satisfaction and no Demons sought her out and soon she was as forgotten as Lauren, left to her own devices until she was rescued and taken back to her own world. Not a world she recognized any longer, though. And not one she was comfortable in any longer.

Now she stood in the entrance hall of the house she had hated for so long, but it already felt different. The disgusting tapestries were no longer on the walls, and it just felt... different.

Her arm was pinched, and she turned a wrathful glance to Lauren who stood behind her, impatiently trying to get inside.

Come on, Ava! I'm anxious to see the changes Cassie has made, then the French Witch ran past her and squealed upon seeing Sofia, another friend. Sofia!

Sofia ran towards them both, laughing.

Brigid is with the Demon they rescued from the Elves, she'll be with us soon, she said and grabbed their hands. Let us go get some juice.

They all walked to the kitchens. They all knew the area well. Lauren had been the first of them to be used as slave servants as the population of Demons and Demis had waned in the last century. No one would touch her as she could make her private parts look diseased. The Demons figured if they couldn't breed her they would make her work. Lauren had shrugged and smiled and said it gave her something to do besides stay in the harem and listen to other women cry.

Sofia got cups for all of them and poured in some juice.

Here's to us! Independent women! Lauren laughed. They all drank to that, laughing and smiling. None of them had come from a time or society where women were independent. It was a heady experience for all of them.

Ava leaned against the table they used to prepare foods and looked around the familiar kitchen area.

It is strange being back here, she said quietly. Nothing has changed, and yet everything has.

Sofia nodded. I definitely felt that earlier when I was shown to my own room with a huge bathing chamber. Cassie said I could do anything I wished with it. They all smiled at that. Sofia and Lauren had been taken at about the same time period on Earth. Their stories of their homes had made Ava laugh.

She had lived in the deserts of what was now Iran, but back then had been called Persia. They had not lived in tents and were not nomadic. The lake region they had lived in had supported her family for generations, and she and her mother had tended to travelers who had come to the oasis area. Her father had been a powerful Witch Hunter and had found her mother while traveling through with his family and he had fallen ill. His family had left him there to get better or die, saying they would check on their way back. He'd never returned to his family and Ava had grown up in a loving, gentle home. Her magic was fire magic, but it was hidden, even from her friends. Fire mages were worth their weight in gold and sought by other magic users to be used as a weapon. She was also adept at controlling water, because of her fire abilities. Most Fire witches were.

Her most powerful weapon in her time on the Demonworld had been her ability to burn away her memory from anyone. It was not as subtle as the Air Magic ability, or illusion magic, but it was effective and had kept Ava in relative safety in the harem.

Her mother had been a renowned healer with most of the people in the area coming to her. Her family had held a certain status because of the power of her mother being magnified by being mated to a powerful Witch Hunter. Her brothers had gone out into the world and found witches of their own to tie themselves to and never returned. She'd been out searching for herbs the day she'd been taken. Cassie had taken her back to the area when she had considered staying on Earth, but the people were strange, believing such idiotic things about the place of women in the world. She'd sadly shaken her head and asked to be returned to the dorms where the women stayed until they figured out what they wanted to do.

Ava was marking time by coming back to the Demonworld, and she knew it. Worse, she suspected her best friends knew it as well.

So we just hand out juice and keep the place clean? Lauren said, her eyes dancing in mischief. She was such an imp.

Sofia nodded. Brigid will go over a lot of that with us. She's been doing things herself, but with all the Demons meeting here she needs help and Cassie isn't allowed to do much now that she's pregnant.

Lauren giggled again. Dieu, I thought Bax would have kittens when she tripped on the hallway runner when they came to pick us up.

Ava had to laugh. Bax kept telling Cassie he couldn't be sane while she needed so much protection. It was a typical Demon Hunter trait that he was having to channel into watching his wife as the Demons he used to hunt were now all dead. Cassie had confided to Ava that it was driving her quite mad.

All of the women were laughing, joking as they always did when together and they heard someone clear their throat. Ava looked up, and her brain stopped working. She could not help staring at one of the most handsome males she'd ever laid eyes on, and that counted the men she'd seen in the TV movies Cassie showed them. He was staring back at her with his mouth open.

You will catch flies like that, Lauren kidded as she jabbed her elbow into Ava's ribs.

The Demon shook his beautiful head and cleared his throat again.

I'm sorry, there was no one to receive us. I came to see if there was anyone around, and if she was right, Ava could swear his sea blue skin blushed. Gramish and Ayalah are here for the meeting. Then he turned and fled. There was no other way to describe his hasty retreat.

Sofia clapped her hands. Let's get their refreshments, Ava. Lauren, go show them into the old receiving room. She stopped and smiled at them. This will be our first time to see a female Demon. I hear they are beautiful.

They quickly got to work. Lauren came from the receiving room pouting because the Demoness had been in a refreshing room and she'd not seen her.

We'll see her later, Ava cooed. She was also curious to see a female Demon. Cassie had never taken her Demi-form so no one had any idea what a female would look like. Would they have the horns the males had? Would they have tails? She thought to the Demon who had come into the kitchen to find them, and she had to smile. He was handsome when she'd never found another Demon handsome at all. She shrugged and figured she might try some modern Earth woman rights and have some fun. Perhaps she could entice him into her room.

Brigid rushed into the kitchen and smiled at everyone. We need to get some juice and fruit in there. The males are growling over their possibly hungry mates.

Is the female in there now? Lauren asked with rapt curiosity.

Brigid nodded and grabbed a tray with juice pitchers on it. Let's move it, ladies, she chortled on her way out the door. We can gossip later.

*****

Tal stood just inside the entry of the former reception room where someone had dragged a few chairs for the party meeting up. Seth was a good host.  Hunting would have been Tal's preference, but Gramish handed out the assignments, and he and Merl obeyed without questioned. They'd been doing it so long that neither even questioned it. Being Gramish's main guards, they had tons of responsibility which was not made easier by the fact that their liege lord now had a breeding mate and the paranoia that came with it. There was no more dangerous being in the universe than a male whose mate was breeding. They were fiercely protective in the best of times but add in expecting young to the equation, and you came up with the meanest beings in the known universe. It was something he'd forgotten about being gone from his home world for so long. None of the few females who had gone into hiding with them had become pregnant while on Era but had quickly done so once home with their mates. Just lightly brushing too close to Ayalah's chair was cause for Gramish to go into a rage and try to kill the poor Demon who'd done it. Once his mate had shown him that Gramish had caused the damage and the poor Demon none, then making him fix it, had calmed the Demon down somewhat, but it was a very close thing if anyone in the large house even sneezed in her general vicinity.

He stood guard at the entrance while the others discussed how they were going to govern their new world, with the Demi, Cassie, staunchly refusing any form of slavery, and standing up for all the females and beings who were needed to come to the Demonworld to repopulate it and rebuild its economy. She'd handed out the document that ruled the land where she had come from. He was busy reading it and not disagreeing with the foreign concept of freedom laid out in the Constitution, as she called it. He heard giggling from the hallway and looked up to see four females coming with refreshments. He almost smiled when he looked at the dusky beauty who had caught his eye in the kitchens. She was laughing with the other females, and when she passed by him, she smiled widely and sent him a saucy wink. He nearly gaped after her, but his training took over, and he remained stoic. But his eyes tracked her through the room as she stopped and offered fruit to everyone. She was wearing a loose fitting skirt that looked like handkerchiefs hanging from her waist. He kept expecting them to separate and show her legs, yet they didn't, and he desperately wanted them to do so.

The women stopped and were talking to Ayalah, laughing and complimenting the Demoness and Silethan High Priestess. She was a beautiful female so he could see why the women would want to be within her sphere of influence. Attractive females drew attractive and strong males that a female might consider for mating. It had been so long since that thought had entered his brain he realized he'd forgotten it. If only he could forget everything from before and just concentrate on the now. Then he might actually have a chance with the beautiful female who had so captured his attention.

Her name is Ava, Demon, he heard Seth's voice from just to his side. She was in my father's harem.

The Demi did not need to explain any further. It meant she was off limits unless she gave consent otherwise, not that he had any thought of carrying her off until he'd filled her with his seed or anything. No, he was not allowed those thoughts. His thoughts, since he'd returned were filled with the hated memory of his father's screaming diatribe about polluting the race with Demis.

So he stood, as he always had. And yet, seeing her made his heart lighter, happier. It was becoming difficult to hear the voice of hatred over it.

Chapter Two

The women had come back to the kitchens chattering happily about the Demoness and wondering what the other females would look like.

I would love to be that tall, Lauren had giggled as the women went about cleaning up pitchers, glasses, and plates. They are so graceful even with those great horns on their heads... And, their hair! To have such shining, curling locks as that... The woman fanned herself with her hand and winked at the others. No male could resist me if I was that beautiful.

But you are beautiful, Seth said.

Brigid ran out of the kitchen she had just been about to enter.

That was ill-timed, Seth, Ava clucked. Go after her. She then laughed as the Demi chased the healer down the hallway. She wished them luck.

Ava walked out giggling with Sofia and Lauren, still discussing how beautiful Ayalah had been. She wondered if the other female Demons would be as beautiful as Ayalah. She was so tall, so graceful. Ava definitely felt short and dumpy around her. She chuckled herself out of that mood quickly. The Demons had never made her feel less than, and she was determined that their beautiful women would not do so either. Luckily she'd always had a cheerful disposition which only the women of the harem had witnessed in her years there. Now that it was free to show itself, she had turned into quite the tease and trickster.

She slowed down walking and started chewing on a fingernail. Brigid wasn't laughing as she should. Granted, the red-haired healer had always been quiet and reserved, but when it was just the women, she opened up and laughed. Now, she was even guarded around them. She looked back towards the kitchen and wondered if Seth had anything to do with it. They'd all watched them for the longest time. It was clear they both had feelings for each other. Before it would have been death if they had given into their feelings and followed their hearts, but they'd had a year now where they could have tested the waters as it were. It wasn't as if Brigid was untouched or didn't know how to prevent pregnancy, she had shown most of them how to prevent it.

No, Ava got the feeling that what held them both back was the past and the perception that the women would turn their backs on her if she showed she was in love with a Demon. Half-blood or not, he had been their keeper while they had lived here. Seth had been the most reluctant and gentle jailer and had actually gotten a few women out, but still, he'd been part of the world that had stolen all of them. Few women would have seen him as the slave he had been here. Faisal's harem had known better. They'd seen him take beatings for them. They'd known he was a good... man?

She shrugged and caught up with Sofia and Lauren. Brigid and Seth had to work out their own problems. She had her own. Like how to catch the eye of a certain Demon guard who came with Gramish for each meeting.