Monster Baiter (An Obscure Magic Book 6) Read online

  He grinned and stepped toward her. “Lucky me.”

  She leaned back. “What are you? You aren’t any extranatural I have ever seen before.”

  He chuckled and glanced toward a horn on a shelf. Of course. It was usually a horn that got their attention.

  She focused on the object as he approached her, and the light wrapped around the horn, lifting it and snapping it to her fingers.

  She held it, and while he lunged for her, she muttered in mage languages until she felt the horn unlock. The magic unravelled, and the beast became a man again.

  Well, man was a bit of an overstatement. The boy in front of her was a lean seventeen if he was a day. He was also very naked.

  Sophia held onto the horn and snapped the binding on her wrists and jerked her legs free. The lad was shocked.

  “What... how...” The brunette looked down and ran for a set of sweatpants.

  Sophia fished her phone out of her cleavage and made a call. “Captain Miskin? I have the highway stalker in my custody, he has been neutralized, and I am asking you to trace my phone and come and collect him.”

  “Who am I talking to?”

  “Sophia DeMonstre.”

  She could almost hear him sitting up on the other end of the line. “Trace is happening and we are on our way.”

  She left the line open and faced the kidnapper.

  The teen slumped on a chair, and he was still wondering what had happened. “I don’t understand.”

  “Which part? You grabbing the horn and unleashing your rage or turning back into yourself? Pick one and I will explain it.”

  Sophia cocked her head and nodded to his clothing. “Get dressed. I will wait.”

  He swallowed. “You said you were in college.”

  “Yes.”

  “How old are you? You talk a lot older.”

  He got up and pulled on his sweatshirt and sneakers.

  She grinned. “Oh, you don’t need to know that. Imagine that I am the same age I look. It will make you feel better.”

  They sat in silence until they heard the approach of the officers.

  “Who is coming for me?”

  “Mage Guild. The officers will take you into custody and charge you with misuse of magic. The horn has been made useless, and once it is used in your investigation, it will be destroyed.”

  He jolted. “You can’t.”

  “Oh. I can. In fact, I am one of the only ones who can.” She walked him out to the mages, and they took over. The looks she got in her cheerleader outfit were close to leers, but when she pinned them with her gaze, they looked respectfully away.

  She put the horn in an evidence case and took their card so she could fill out the report and send it to them in the morning.

  “Ms. DeMonstre, is that your car in the road?”

  “Yup.” She walked with them back to the highway with a spring in her step.

  “Can we help you get it started?”

  Sophia chortled and walked to her hood, removing the support rod and lowering it with a click. She tapped the hood twice, and the car roared to life.

  “I have it under control, Officers, but thanks for the offer.” She climbed into her car, waved them goodnight and headed back to the office in Redbird City. She really hated commuting, but when humans became monsters, she was the DeMonstre on duty.

  Her parents looked at her and laughed. Her father grinned. “The cheerleader again?”

  “It rarely fails and has a wide age range for attractions. Thanks to this curse of ours, I won’t ever look my age, so why not?” She walked through the entryway and toward her change room. The sheer amount of fantasy costumes that she had sometimes embarrassed her, but the weird part was that she could wear the same ones her mother had, and her mom wasn’t born a DeMonstre.

  While the family name was passed from daughter to daughter, her father, Gerard, was the rare DeMonstre male. He still looked to be twenty-five, and his elegant demeanour gave him a European flare.

  She grabbed some normal clothing and stepped behind the changing screen. Her instinct was confirmed a moment later when her parents knocked on her door.

  “Come in.” She pried the top off and slipped her comfy shirt over her torso.

  “How did it go, Sophy?”

  “It went fine, Dad. It was a little bit of oh no my car broke down followed by whatever will I do and a lot of waving my ass in the air, but he took the bait.”

  Her father was eager. “What was the enchantment?”

  “It was a simple rage-to-animal focus. The guy was definitely socially awkward and desperate for female attention. The manifestation was boar, bear, a touch of wolf and some fox. The trigger was a standard cow horn that would have had no place in the forest. It would have stood out to even the blindest of seekers.”

  “What about his lair?”

  “Bomb shelter under a cottage in the woods.”

  Gerard made a frustrated growl.

  “Relax, Dad. I know that if you could be out there, you would be. There just aren’t as many female monsters seeking men as there used to be. Don’t worry. You still look pretty.”

  Her mother chimed in. “I keep telling him that he should take up acting or, at least, running around naked, but he refuses. He misses being the Cursed One.”

  Sophy finished smoothing her tights and tucking them into her knee-high boots. Her tunic fell to her knees and was slit up her thighs. She wrapped a wide belt around her waist and fluffed her hair out.

  The cheerleader outfit went back on a hangar, and if she didn’t have to wear it for another decade, she would be fine.

  She brought it out and added it to her costume library.

  Her mother had brought in a tray with coffee and sandwiches. Soph sighed and sat at the small table and broke down the details of her evening.

  “How did the car enchantment work?”

  “Like a dream, Dad. There was smoke, noise and the scent of overheated metal. It worked like a charm.”

  “Any idea how the charm found the monster to begin with?”

  “Tracking spell to find an angry and disgruntled teenaged boy who wants to get laid is like shooting fish in a barrel.” Sophy leaned in and loaded a pile of teeny sandwiches onto a plate.

  She sat back in her chair with one foot on the edge and stuffed her face.

  Her mother took out a notepad and started to create the statement. “Which Mage Guild were you dealing with, dear?”

  “Creath Township. Captain Miskin. He was there for the arrest.”

  Her father gave her a calm look. “What do you think his sentence will be?”

  Sophy mumbled around some sliced ham and cucumber, “It will be light. He didn’t actually do more than chase the first few girls. If I hadn’t come along, it would have been different, but as it is, his life may be fairly normal.”

  Her father nodded. “Of course. No blood.”

  It was amusing that he liked to reiterate what all DeMonstre’s knew. Blood locked the monsters. The more kills, the harder it was to break the enchantment without killing the charmed one. Sophy could still do it, but her target rarely survived.

  Her mom got down to it and got the details from original call-out information to the names of the officers who took the horn into custody.

  When her mom was done, Sophy just signed the document and smiled. “I am going to head home if you don’t mind.”

  Her mother smiled and said. “One more cup of tea. You look pale, Soph.”

  Sophy sat and drank another cup of the medicinal tea. When she was done, she left the family home and headed down the street to her small house.

  Living away from home had been vitally important to her. With her features looking eternally youthful, it was imperative that she did things that suited her age. She had bought the house in her early twenties and had paid it off as soon as she could with her own funds.

  Acting as a curse breaker didn’t pay the bill
s. She was an accountant, just as her mother and father were. Together, they managed a small empire of financial information.

  She had work to do in the morning. It was tax season.

  She opened her door with a small flick of magic and walked inside, locking the door behind her.

  It felt so good to be in her own territory where every inch of the space gave off energy that she could read, touch and control.

  She poured herself a glass of wine and went to run a bath. On the edge of her tub was a single glittering scale. “Delwin!”

  Her roommate stumbled out of bed, and she heard him tracking his way to the bathroom. “Oh, you are home. How was the forest perv?”

  “About how you would think. What did I say about you using my tub? There is a perfectly good tub in your en suite. Leave mine alone.”

  She flicked his scale at him. He caught it and sighed. “I thought I got them all.”

  “You didn’t. Is there a reason that you keep sticking yourself into my personal space?” She scowled at him.

  He shrugged; his dark hair over his shoulder and his green-casted skin had a rich tone that meant he was blushing. “Your tub is bigger. I can stretch out my tail.”

  She smacked him on the shoulder. “Then get your own place and you can have it all.”

  He sighed. “I can’t afford one.”

  “Get a job. I am really not in the mood to come home to an empty fridge and scales in my tub after every mission. I need controlled space where there aren’t any other energy patterns in the vicinity to come down.”

  He blinked both sets of lids. “Sorry. Didn’t think of it that way.”

  “Please do. You have been here for four months, ever since that freaking necklace backfired. Get on with your life in the deep and enjoy yourself.”

  Delwin pouted. He did it very well. “I like it on land.”

  “I am sure you do. There is probably another extranatural or human out there who would love to take you on and care for you. I have a life, as weird as it is.”

  He smiled. “I know. It gives me plenty of time to research this realm.”

  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.

  Chapter Two

  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.