She's No Faerie Princess (25 page)

What the idiot hoped to accomplish, Walker had no idea,but he put a stop to the attack with the simple defense ofone large finger pressed against the pugnacious pixie'ssternum. Naturally, it overlapped onto his chest, stomach,and really most of his torso.

"I guess he's not kidding," Walker drawled. As if it weren't bad enough that he'd been woken out of a sound sleep with his mate slumbering peacefully beside him, now the weird little creatures that had done the waking had decided they needed to try to poke his eyes out or something.

"Babbage, quit it!" Fiona grabbed the pixie by his tunic and hauled him away from Walker, setting Babbage down on the mattress and glaring at him sternly. "Now, how about you tell me what the hell is going on? This time without all the histrionics and melodrama."

Walker watched the pint-sized pest struggle with whatlooked like a righteous sulk before he grudginglyanswered the question.

"We came to rescue you," Babbage pouted. "Why else would you have appeared in the scrying bowl, if not to cry for help? I couldn't think of any other reason. If you weren't being held captive against your will, you could have just returned to the gate and come home. As you should have. We didn't realize until we tried it ourselves that the gate had malfunctioned."

It looked like Fiona was used to being lectured by thispipsqueak, because she didn't bother to snap at the thingthe way she would have at Walker if he'd said anythingclose to it. They were going to have to work on that.

"I couldn't come home," she said. "The gate's not working at either end, apparently. Someone put some kind of seal on it. I tried to get through a couple of days ago and ended up unconscious for a good few minutes."

The red one, the one without wings but with tiny littledevil's horns poking out of his forehead, frowned. "Thatdon't sound well."

"Doesn't sound good, Squick."

"That were what I said. It would takes a lot of magic to seal a gates like that, and why woulds anyone want to? The queen already keep a tight lock on who go in and out. She be more fretful over us coming here than them going there, if you take my meanings."

"I haven't figured out why," Fiona said. "At first I thought it might have something to do with Uncle Dionnu and his being here for the negotiations without telling Aunt Mab about them, but that doesn't really make sense. He's never been afraid of upsetting her before, so why should he worry now?"

The pixie's eyes widened. "King Dionnu is here? In themortal world?"

"I know. That was my reaction."

Briefly, Fiona outlined why Dionnu had come to Manhattan and what he claimed he intended to gain fromthe visit. Both uninvited guests looked as skeptical astheir princess.

"I doesn't know, Miss Fiona," the red fellow said. "You knows I'm not the devious sort, but it sound to me like the king might being up to something."

His small, pointy tail twitched from side to side as he saidit, and Walker found himself suppressing a snort. Thelittle guy looked like everyone's childhood vision of thedevil. All he needed was a pitchfork and a pointy blackgoatee to complete the image.

"Yeah, I had an inkling." Fiona's voice was dry, her mouth wry. "But I don't have time to try and figure out what he has up his sleeve. There are other things going on that take precedence over Uncle Dionnu's eternal quest for whatever he can get."

"Like what?" Babbage asked.

"You mean aside from the fact that someone sealed off the gate and then put a spell on the glass and the scrying bowl to make them explode if anyone established contact between here and Faerie?" She paused. "Well, we do seem to have a couple of demons on our hands."

"Demons?"

They said it in chorus, both tiny faces going slack withshock, then blank with horror.

"How can that be?"

"Can't be true! Hasn't been a demons up from Below in…

in… I can't remembers how long!"

"Maybe not where you're from," Walker threw in, "but here in the real world, we have the occasional visitor. Usually they're just here long enough to eat the one who summoned them, then they go home. But these guys don't seem to be following the standard rules. They're sure as hell not sticking inside some tidy little circles."

Fiona jumped in to explain what she had found, and herminiature audience listened with surprising attention. Neither one interrupted or even moved until Fiona hadrelated the whole of the tale.

"That's the real reason I was trying to contact the queen," she said. "I'm afraid that if I ask too many human sorcerers, I'll tip off the summoner that we're on to him, so I was hoping Aunt Mab would give me access to the royal library. That way I could do some research on the sigils myself, see if I could come up with an identity of at least one of the demons. Even that much might help me trace it back to the one who called it."

Babbage shook his head. "The queen would not like thisidea, Your Highness. I believe she would be moreinclined to order you to return to the palace immediately,rather than give you the keys to her library. You know shewould never countenance you putting yourself in dangerthis way."

"Fiona isn't going to be in any danger. Not while I'm around." Walker didn't appreciate the idea of anyone implying he couldn't take care of his mate, whether they knew she was his mate or not. If another pack member had said such a thing, there would have been a battle.

Somehow, even from two and a half feet below his eyeline, the pixie managed to look down his nose at Walker. "You may be willing to try, wolf, but you can't stop a spellthe way you can someone's fist."

His eyes narrowed. "I can stop your mouth, if you don'twatch it, Tinker Bell."

Fiona shushed them both. "It doesn't really matter what

the queen would or wouldn't countenance, Babb. And it doesn't matter who orders me to go home at this point. I can't. The gate is sealed, and until I figure out how to get it open again—which is going to have to wait until after I take care of the demon business—I'm staying right here."

Walker clenched his teeth. She'd be staying right here fora long time after that bloody gate was open. She justdidn't realize it yet. But there was no way in hell he'd lether leave his apartment, let alone his world. Not unlesshe was walking right alongside of her. He'd thought shewas starting to understand after their discussion lastnight, but now it looked like a little more persuasion mightbe in order.

The little devil hopped over to sit near Fiona's knees andbraced his hands on his hips. "Can you showed me whatthe marks looks like? I might could be big helps."

"How?"

Squick threw Walker an impatient scowl. "I's an imp,that's how. I gots friends in warm places."

Fiona explained, "Imps are Fae, but that's mostlybecause they sided with us during the Wars. Theyactually started out as hybrids—part demon, part Fae."

"Part pixie,
 
to
 
be specific," the imp sniffed, and shot Babbage a smirk. "But us seen which way the wind were blowing during the fighting, so we decides to sign on with the white sheep of the family and fighted for the king and queen. Since then, Their Majesties hasn't been able to live without us."

"Hasn't been able to get rid of you," Babbage grumbled.

"Haven't," Fiona corrected.

Wondering if maybe he should have taken those aspirinafter all, Walker shook his head. "I'm starting to think I'mgoing to need a crash course in the history of the Fae- Demon Wars before this is all over."

"All yous needs to know," Squick said, puffing out his chest, "is that if anybody can finds out what demon left its sigil on these bodies of yours, I'm them."

"It," Walker growled.

"That's what I said. So, can you sketches them out for

me, Miss Fiona?"

She nodded and a pad and pen appeared on her lap. "The sorcerer is human, so I doubt you'd recognize hismark. I'll just show you the sigils that named the demonand gave it its orders." Quickly Fiona sketched the sameugly lines Walker had seen her draw in the dirt the othernight. They didn't look any prettier in the light of day orany more familiar. "That's what I saw. I may be off a lineor two, but I think I got pretty close; don't you, Walker?"

He nodded. "That's what I remember."

"Do you recognize any of them, Squick?"

"Not too much. At least, nots the name glyphs," he said, frowning. "But let me takes the paper, and I do some checking."

Fiona swore. "You can't. The gate is closed. Who are yougoing to ask if you can't get back to Faerie?"

"There be more than one gates in this world, Miss Fiona,

and not every one lead to Faerie."

Babbage made a choked coughing sound. "You can'tmean to go Below and ask, Squick! That would be asuicide mission! Imps are about as welcome Below asdemons are Above."

Walker had heard the term "Below" before. It was howthe Fae and historians referred to the plane of existencethe Fae had banished the demons to after the end of the Wars. You couldn't call it hell, but only because of thelack of the souls of dead humans. It was still a bleak,malevolent world populated entirely by demons and any Fae who had been labeled traitors during the conflict. Incomparison, every place that wasn't Below started beingcalled Above.

Squick's small red chest puffed out even more. "I canshandle myselves," the imp assured them. "Some of wedon't needs wings to move fastly."

"Squick, I don't know. I don't want to put you in any

danger. This isn't really your problem."

"I puts myself where we wants to be."

Walker frowned, and Fiona didn't look convinced. Shelooked worried. Apparently, she really cared whathappened to the annoying little buggers, and that meant Walker did, too.

Damn, this mate thing was already getting complicated.

Seeing the stubborn look on the imp's face, Walkerchimed in to back up Fiona and Babbage. "I'm not surethat's a good idea, Squick. The information is important,but it won't do us any good if you get killed finding it.

Then we're out the information
 
and
 
an imp. Can't you findanyplace else to ask around that isn't Below?"

"Who else be knowing about demons but themself? Well, and the Fae chroniclers, but if we can't gets back to the palace, we can't very well asks him, can us?"

Fiona still looked worried. "Squick, I don't like it. Walker'sright. You could be killed."

"I can takes care of myselves," he said firmly. Before anyone could offer another protest, he snatched the paper from her hands and folded it into a small triangle that disappeared when he blew on it. "I finds out about your demon. Maybe if the pixie wants to make hisself useful, he can sees what's what at the gate. At least he wouldn't being a total wastes of magic, then."

Babbage puffed up like a frightened Persian cat, but Fiona cut off his indignant protest. "No, I don't like theidea of you splitting up, let alone of one of you going Below all on your own."

Babbage turned whiter than Walker's sheets.

Squick just snorted. "What? I is supposed to take thepixie with me? And if thing didn't goes finely, I's couldalways bargain his wings away in exchanges for safepassage. Them make good snacking, demons say." Heshook his head. "No, Miss Fiona. Better off to go and goon my owns. Sneakier that ways." He threw Walker aspeaking glance. "Faster, too."

Walker nodded grimly. "Fast would be good."

At least on locating the demon. The pixie could take allthe time in the world figuring out what was keeping Fiona

from going back through the Faerie gate, as far as

Walker was concerned.

Realizing he was not being sent Below to accompany Squick, Babbage began breathing again. "Well, I'm gladthat's settled." He cleared his throat. "I can certainly takea look at the gate and see if I can discern what kind ofhex is on it and who put it there. Yes, I'm happy to dothat! We all have to stick to our strengths, after all."

He practically whistled a tune of relief, but Fionacontinued to frown. "I have a bad feeling about this," shesaid. "I wish you wouldn't go, Squick."

"Oh, Miss Fiona, you worries too much. Nothings will happen to me. I come back finer than before, you see. And I brings back the names of the demon so we can sends it back Below where it belonging. Imp's promise."

Walker got the feeling an imp's promise didn't hold quitethe weight Squick had invested in it.

"All right," Fiona agreed grudgingly. "It's clear I can't stop you when your mind is already made up, but I expect you to be careful. Both of you."

The Fae nodded. "We will," they said in unison, and theyswept Fiona a pair of elegant bows before turning andblinking out of the room.

Fiona continued to stare at the spot where they haddisappeared for a long minute after they had gone, and Walker sat beside her, his hand resting on her back.

"I do have a bad feeling," she murmured, and he saw the little crease in the skin between her eyebrows. "Something bad is going to happen to them. I know it."

Slipping his arms all the way around her, Walker tugged Fiona against his side and nuzzled her hair. "I think theycan take care of themselves. You heard Squick. It will beokay, Princess."