Making Monster Girls 3: For Science! Page 27

  The tiny creature almost looked like a minnow as it cut through the water, but as it changed direction, looped twice, and then burst past the glass, we got a better view of it. The small nix looked more like a human than a fish, maybe what I would imagine a mermaid to look like, but on a much smaller scale. The bottom half of the nix was like the tail of a fish, but when it turned again in the water, we saw that instead of a single fin, it had two leg-like appendages it used for propulsion. Both of them were covered in brightly colored scales that shifted and changed colors in the light, but the upper half of the nix looked like a miniature human, except its skin color was a grayish-green hue.

  “They may be pests,” the heiress gasped. “But it’s so beautiful. Look at the way it moves… It just glides through the water as if it were flying.”

  We fell silent for a moment as we watched the freed nix explore its new home. When I finally broke away from the trance-like state, I realized that Josephine tightly held my hand in her lap, my heart beat a bit faster, and our faces turned to face each other. The honey blonde’s face was illuminated by the changing colors of the nix’s scales, and I was awestruck by her striking beauty. Her plump lips parted as if she wanted to speak, but quickly closed when she leaned closer. We were inches from each other and on the verge of kissing when a voice from above called out to us.

  “Charles!” Daisy cried. “I finished the letter! I’ve called for a courier, and they’ll be here soon to take it to the Duchess!”

  “You’ve known the Duchess longer than I have,” I stated. “For most of your life, it seems. How long do you think it’ll take her before she shows up?”

  “Edony’s intelligent, I know that for sure,” Josephine stated. “If she has a hunch about something, she will always follow it, no matter the obstacles in her path. So, if she thinks it’s you who sent the letter, she’ll appear tomorrow morning, and that’s at the latest… But if I know her well enough, she never waits… it’ll be tonight. She’ll come sometime tonight.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  We patiently waited for Edony to appear, but over the next few passing days, she never did. I had to wonder if the letter reached her at all, but Daisy watched the courier take it from the local drop box in town. If she had received it, was she plotting something? I had no way of finding out, not unless I went to the Duchess and revealed that the letter was from me. My women and I devised the plan that if nothing happened, we would write a second letter, this one more taunting than the first, and I would deliver it myself. Daisy wrote the letter, left it out for me, and it sat on the kitchen table waiting until the time was right.

  I thumped down the stairs on the third day, turned toward the drawing-room, peeked in, and noticed Valerie lounging on one of the plush couches. The feline-woman laid on her stomach with a book held between her hands. Her legs swung through the air idly, and her long, chocolate brown tail twitched lazily through the air.

  “Where’s everyone else?” I asked.

  “Daisy is in the library,” the ash-blonde smiled. “Something about researching what other things that nixes can eat. Josephine went home for a bit, but she said she’d be back later with some bags of clothes since she wants to stay with us until the Duchess shows up.”

  “And Rian?” I chuckled.

  “She said something about fairies earlier?” the cat-girl squinted. “She said it was mentioned in a conversation a couple of days ago, and that they’re so delicious. I think she went out into the woods to catch some. I told her not to because, even though I’ve never seen a fairy in person, they’re too pretty to eat, but she didn’t listen. She was rummaging around in the carriage house for a little while, found a net, and then tramped off into the woods. She might be out back if you go looking for her.”

  “I hope she knows that fairies only come out in the spring and summer,” I tittered. “But, I’ll go and look for her.”

  “I tried to tell her that,” the ash-blonde giggled. “That’s exactly what Daisy told me, but Rian wouldn’t listen. You know how she gets when she’s hungry.”

  A memory of Rian tipping over the kitchen table with hands filled with fried chicken legs, cheeks puffed out with a mouthful of mashed potatoes, and streaks of gravy smeared across her red skin flashed through my head, and I nodded.

  “I’ll go and look for her,” I chuckled. “She couldn’t have gone very far.”

  “You might want to take an axe with you,” the feline-woman chimed. “Or a knife or something. It’s late fall, so you know that bears are preparing for hibernation. Daisy said she could smell them wandering through the woods looking for food not far from here. I wouldn’t want you getting hurt out there.”

  “You’re right,” I stated. “I think I have an ax in the carriage house. I’ll grab it before I head out.”

  The feline-woman rolled over onto her back, held the book over her head, stretched her right leg up onto the back of the couch, and rested the left against the floor. Her sleek tail twitched slightly at the tip, smacked against the wooden floorboards, and then laid silent. I turned toward the front door, hurried out onto the porch, and then thumped down the stairs. The sky was just starting to darken, and it flooded the city of Edenhart below in a haze of golden oranges, bright yellows, and muted violets.

  Fall was quickly approaching. Most of the trees except for the tall, towering pines had lost their leaves, and the long, billowing grass down the side of the hill was just starting to turn a sickly yellow with the absence of the summer heat. Pretty soon, I’d have to clean out the wood-burning stoves in the basement, clear out the fireplaces in each room, and chop down a few trees to keep the house warm. I had some wood stocked from the past year, but it wasn’t very much, so I’d have to fell about two or three pines to keep us covered for the coming winter.

  I stepped inside of the carriage house, moved past the horses’ stalls, petted one on the snout as he whinnied at me, and then hurried to the back where I kept most of my storage. I threw open the cabinet door, glanced into the dim light, and grabbed the almost brand new axe I’d purchased a long time ago at Vallantine mercantile. I held the tool lightly, rested it against my shoulder, and trudged out of the carriage house. I headed toward the woods, listened in the distance for any noise, heard the soft shuffling sounds of feet, nodded once, and set off toward them.

  The forest was almost silent, and I tried to remember the last time I’d ventured in here. It’d have to be back when I lived alone, shortly after the Duchess hired me, and offered the manor to me. Before then, I’d lived in small tents with little to no heat sources. Back then, in the winter, I never knew if I’d wake up in the morning or if I would succumb to the frigid cold of Edenhart’s severe winters. I was thankful I didn’t have to live that life anymore. I’d come so far and came out on the other end a changed man. I was almost thankful to the Duchess. She may have treated me horribly, but if it weren’t for her and the experiments, my women wouldn’t exist.

  “Rian?” I cupped my free hand around my mouth and shouted. “Where are you? It’s getting dark, and you won’t be finding any fairies out during this time of year.”

  “I’m over here, Charles,” the imp-woman shouted. “You’re right. I haven’t found any, but I did find a delicious burrow of rabbits. The little pests won’t come out and let me eat them. Come here, rabbitty-rabbit, I don’t want to hurt you. I just wanna eat you!”

  “Rian, no,” I chuckled. “We have plenty of food back home. I’m sure you can find something just as delicious there, or you could ask Daisy to cook something up for you. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

  “You’re right,” the black-haired beauty sighed. “Where are you, Charles?”

  “I’m over here,” I replied as I came around a tree, and finally, she came into view. “Ah, there you are.”

  “It’s a beautiful night even if I didn’t catch anything,” Rian breathed. “I never thought I’d enjoy life on the surface as much as I do. Down in the mines, it was always warm. The earth keeps u
s at just the right temperature even during the changing seasons.”

  “Why would you want to eat fairies anyway?” I laughed. “They’re beautiful creatures that don’t hurt anyone. I’m sure we could find some other food that’s taste compares to theirs.”

  “No, Charles, you don’t understand,” the imp-woman grinned. “The wings are the best part of them, especially when they’re roasted over an open fire. They get all crispy, almost like the fried potatoes that Daisy makes occasionally, but they’re even better than that. Their taste is meat-like, but with a hint of spiciness and sweetness. It’s such a strange flavor, and I’m not sure how to describe it.”

  “I bet they are,” I nodded. “But, I’m not sure if Daisy told you this, but fairies are nearly extinct, or at least they are in this region of the country. It’s difficult for them to survive in the winter, and every year, their numbers drop.”

  “How do you know that?” Rian asked. “All of the books that Daisy has on the beasts are from years ago. They wouldn’t have that type of information in them.”

  “Everyone knows,” I grunted. “When I was a child, we would see them pretty often. Now you might go many years between sightings.”

  “Let’s go back to the house,” the imp-woman sighed, stood up from her crouch, brushed off her hands, and waltzed toward me. “I’m quite hungry, and I don’t think I’ll find anything out here that’ll let me eat it.”

  “I don’t think any creature on this earth would ‘let you eat it,’” I tittered. “But sure. Daisy would be delighted to whip something up for you.”

  I offered Rian my hand, took hers into my own, pulled her close to my side, and wrapped an arm around her waist. The imp-woman’s orange eyes glowed in the darkness, she turned her head toward me, smiled, and then her gaze settled on the axe resting on my shoulder.

  “What is that for?” the red-skinned woman asked. “You could’ve given it to me, and I would’ve been able to dig out those pesky rabbits.”

  “Winter is coming,” I uttered. “The bears are starting to prepare for hibernation, so I just wanted to be careful in case one of them appeared out of the woods and attacked us.”

  Rian immediately paused, her mouth dropped open, her hand slammed down in the middle of my back, and slammed me down to the ground. Something whizzed through the air, passed through the space where my head had just been, and buried itself deep into the meat of a tall pine. The ax fell from my hands, landed in the scattered leaves with a dull thud a few feet away, and I scrambled across the ground for it. I lifted my eyes toward the tree, in the darkness, I couldn’t tell exactly what it was that blasted above us, but it was long, pointed, and at the very end, scarlet feathers rustled in a slight breeze.

  “It’s not a bear you have to worry about,” a deep booming voice growled. “It’s me.”

  I turned, gazed over my shoulder, and watched as a man entirely clothed in black emerged from the shadows. He held a bow loosely in one hand, reached back with his other, and grasped a second arrow. In a split second, the man dipped the tip of the shaft into a small canister attached to the quiver on his back, loaded the bolt into the crook of the bow, and took aim.

  I barely had time to think before the dark-clothed man pulled back the bowstring, closed an eye, and let the arrow fly. I wasn’t entirely sure what he’d dipped the pointed tip in, but I could only guess it was some type of poison.

  “Charles!” Rian barked.

  I tucked my arms into my body, followed the trajectory of the coming arrow, and rolled to the left. I slammed my right hand out, rolled over the ax, gripped it tightly in my palm, and then hopped to my feet. This was going to be difficult. He had a long-range weapon while I had a close-range one, and I had to move in before he had the chance to fire another arrow.

  My heart hammered in my chest like the thrumming wings of a hummingbird, sweat beaded on the surface of my forehead, and the hairs at the back of my neck stood up, but surprisingly, I felt eerily calm. Was it because I’d been through other situations like this and survived despite the odds stacked against me? I held the axe loosely in one hand, gripped it in both of my palms, and calmed my breathing. I had one chance at this, not only that, but I had no idea if the attacker had another weapon on him.

  If I got close enough, he could easily drop the bow, grab another concealed armament, and attack without warning. I had to be careful, I wasn’t just protecting my life, but if he killed me, he could go into the house and find my other women. I wasn’t sure what his mission was, if it was just to kill me or Daisy and me, but all I knew was I had to destroy him before he made it any closer to the manor.

  I couldn’t lean on Rian in this situation, I had sworn to protect her, and her sisters, but not only that, the imp-woman’s powers hadn’t manifested yet. Sure, she could use her horns, taloned fingers, and the tip of her tail as weapons, but that also meant she had to get in close, and I wouldn’t allow that, not when I knew there was a chance of her getting hurt.

  I had to do this to protect the manor, but more importantly, my women.

  “Who sent you?” I barked. “The Duchess? Is that why she took so long? Did she send a puny man to do her work for her? How pathetic.”

  “The Duchess sends her regards,” the man in black chuckled. “She’s a little busy at the moment, and couldn’t come herself, but you’ll be dead anyway, so why should it matter if I did it? She’ll have the satisfaction of knowing you’re dead.”

  With a roar, I launched myself forward, raised the ax over my head, weaved through the trees so he couldn’t get a mark on me, and closed the distance between us. The man clothed in black smirked, held the bow tightly in his hands, shifted to the left, and changed his aim away from me.

  “Too bad the order wasn’t to kill just you,” the attacker bellowed. “Say goodbye, Daisy Browning!”

  “Rian!” I roared. “Move!”

  The man in black let go of the bowstring with a twang, reached for another arrow, all while keeping an eye on Rian and me. A flash of orange light burst through the forest, and I barely had time to register what just happened. The last time I saw the arrow, it’d been flying through the air straight for Rian, but now it was gone. I quickly examined the forest floor and found it a few feet away consumed entirely in blue flames.

  How did that happen? One minute the arrow was cutting through the air straight for the imp-woman, and next thing, it was incinerated to dust. The man in black’s mouth dropped open, his eyes widened, and he half-turned toward me as he reached for another arrow.

  I growled under my breath, shifted my feet, and changed direction as I held the axe high over my head. I couldn’t turn back now, and even if I did, it wouldn’t make a difference. I knew that Rian could defend herself from a flying arrow, but that didn’t stop me from worrying about her and her safety.

  The red-skinned imp-woman stood from the ground, brushed off her shoulder, rose to her full height, and took a decisive step forward. I never felt afraid around my women, but there was something in Rian’s eyes that chilled me to the bone. She didn’t look like the boisterous, playful imp-woman that I knew so well. She looked like a predator.

  The next arrow flew straight at her, aimed directly at her head, but the black-haired beauty didn’t move out of the way. My hands tightened on the ax, my feet pounded against the soft earth, and I screamed at the top of my lungs.

  “Rian!” I thundered.

  The black-haired imp-woman didn’t respond, but kept her orange eyes on the moving arrow. At the last moment, Rian’s hands clenched into tight fists, and she stepped forward. Rather than burying itself into her face, the arrow exploded into flames with a loud crackle. My breathing stopped, even my hammering heart paused against its onslaught against my ribs, and both the man clothed in black and I stared in the direction of the imp-woman.

  “W-What?” the man croaked. “What was that?”

  “Rian?” I questioned.

  The imp-woman stalked forward, but didn’t speak, raised her right
fist fluidly through the air, uncurled her fingers, and then swiped upward toward the treetops. A roar ripped through the forest, and at first, I thought it was a wild beast, but a burst of light distracted me. The man, only a few feet away from me, screamed in agonizing pain, jumped from foot to foot as a wild blaze danced at his feet. The fire climbed up the legs of his pants, burned them away, and then licked at his bare flesh.

  I didn’t have to think about what to do next, only move.

  I raced forward, lifted the axe over my head once more, and then swung it down with an echoing roar. The blade of the axe glinted and reflected the light of the scorching fire, and for a second, I saw my own face on its surface. The man clothed in black, lifted his head, screamed in terror, and I finally saw his face. He looked like the average man, his skin was puckered from old acne scars, his eyes were a light sky blue, and his face was scruffy with a patch of unshaved facial hair.

  In another life, we might have been acquaintances or even friends, but here, in the forest, he was merely an assassin sent by the Duchess, and I had no other choice than to kill him. Edony had sent him here to do the very same thing to me, and I couldn’t let any harm come to my women or me.

  The axe in my hands connected with the crown of his skull, broke through the bone, and slowed as it passed through his soft grey matter. Blood sprayed into the air, droplets hit my face, but I ignored them and pulled the ax back. Before I could stop myself, I swung the axe down again. It hit the bone with a resounding crack, broke through a few inches away from my first hit, and sliced into his brain.

  The attacker’s wails abruptly died in his throat, he wavered on his scorched legs, and then tumbled forward onto the leaf covered ground. In an instant, all of the flickering flames died out where he stood. I held the axe loosely in my hands, slumped my back, breathed hard, and then turned toward Rian.

  “What…” I panted. “What was that?”

  Rian sauntered closer, the unearthly glow in her eyes slowly stuttering out, she held her hands loosely at her sides, glared down at the man’s body, and parted her lips to speak.