All Drugged Up: Part II: Haven, #4

By Lil Hamilton

A magically induced drug rages through the city causing the fae to spell uncontrollably until they Fade. Ray has managed to get herself infected by this drug and is relentlessly trying to find the malicious witch behind it. At the same time, she still tries to deal with the Faerie King and his desire to have her as his Consort. However, the KIng's actions in taking the fae off the Accords has riled up the Interracial Department, who now doesn't trust his motives. Ray must try to get the fae King and the Hells king together to talk and try to appease the humans.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nikki M Albert
• Release date: Feb 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393008064

Book preview

Chapter 1

Why is it when you have a mystery it’s always the least likely suspect? Or the butler.

EVERYBODY WAS THERE when I got to my office all blurry-eyed in the morning. They were clustered around the city map sipping coffee.I was still suffering some fatigue from the vampires I had tagged for Vincent. That was a band-aide on the problem of the drugged up fae and the young vampire’s that thirsted after them. However, at least the Master vampire, Vincent had paid my associate Vivica and me to prevent his turned children from feasting on my people. My King would hardly appreciate his people being a tasty snack while we tried to resolve the problem of who was behind poisoning the fae with the mystery drug.

Dill and Chera were chatting. Lana was staring down at her map silently. The potential mate my father had inflicted on me, Zanon, just loomed in the corner observing everything. Viv lounged on a chaise managing to look like the seductive vampire she was even though she wasn’t even trying.

When I walked in Chera was saying to Dill. They’re like in a network, these Whites, plugging into the Coven House. I bet something is going on there that’s causing shortages in this circuit of businesses. Something the Whites don’t want to admit to the business owners who depend on those shields.

They were referring to a gig I had given Chera to do with Dill to assist her. I was hoping it would give the young psychic some confidence.

Yeah, they probably linked to share power and protection, Dill said.

His usual harsh face looked a little more intimidating because of the dower look on it. I bet my best-enchanted object he was thinking strategy and contingencies. I raised a brow at him and he gave me a small nod. Lan could think all he wanted that he’s my demon guard but Dill was my security man. He knew the city. He handled my spy network. He handled my safety for years. He had found me at the request of my mother and would keep me safe at all costs. Not because the King said so. Not because the Demon Lord demanded it. Because it was his duty and because he was loyal to me not some political agenda. I trusted him more than anyone else. If the shit went down he had my back against demons and fae alike.

Lana grinned. You guys sure as shit going to love what I got for you, the young black witch said when she saw me.

She was a whole lot of problems I had no idea how to solve at the moment but at least she had proved useful.

I scowled at Lana sternly. Child, we don’t allow sure foul language around here. It’s a bad influence on me.

The solemn girl grinned.

I looked at the mage screen the girl had made and it still depicted the city, but had no dots on it yet, although I knew she had tagged us to pick up on the screen. Okay, so what do you have?

I’ll show you. I recorded it. Her hand waved over the screen and dots appeared. Our drug dealer was on a well-known gutter street for drug users, nothing surprising there. The werewolf was at a smaller bar called ‘Starlight’ where there was mostly fae clientele.

Okay, he stays here for a bit. I figure he’s unloading his stock. Now let’s see where he goes to get more.

The wolf took an odd route, maybe to cover his tracks and occasionally he paused somewhere, but he was getting closer to Olde Towne. In the end, he was on Olde Towne main, the far end of the main road, in particular, right behind the White Coven House. Then he went in. The dot disappeared likely because the one thing you could depend on the White witches for was damn good shields and wards.

Yeah, the Whites. And he stayed there for like an hour before leaving. Then he goes right back into the main drug districts, Lana said.

Holy smokes, I breathed. I can’t believe it. That literally blows my mind.

I had honestly had my eye on Myra the Hag. I wasn’t making the assumption it was her, but she was definitely at the top of my list. Just because she was dead didn’t mean much in her case.

I would never have thought the Queen would have even been able to get her hooks into a White, but then if this one was a sorcerer and a cursed one at that she could just be hiding in the most obvious place. A perfect place for the former Queen to have an operative. One where she would have wanted an operative. Well damn.

Yeah, that’s just weird. It causes neural brain explosions of pure shock and horror, Chera said. They’re pretty firm in their ‘do no harm’ motto. Why would they go and do something like this?

But they weren’t harming specifically were they? They were making a drug and then passing it off to a werewolf who then sold it. Even then it didn’t specifically harm unless said fae happened across a hungry vampire. Wow. That was really walking a fine karma line. But then the Whites often did do such careful moral acrobatics.

That’s obvious, Lana said. They have never liked the fae. They were the ones totally against giving them land rights and damn near succeeding too, given their members are used in government all the time. Not all their members but certainly the ones that stick to their codes. It comes down to accountability, and the fae do magic like it is common and nothing they need to even think about. They don’t fear the consequences and have no morality. They fear what the fae can do.

I was a little surprised at the inner opinions of the witch community and guessed that Dill had been right to hire one.

Wow. I knew they had a distaste for us. Just wow, I said.

Yep, blows my mind, Dill said. Like totally and literally.

I scowled at him in irritation. You know what? I’m thinking right now of casting a spell that will only make you speak in grammatically correct sentences. See how you like that you...

While Lana quietly laughed Chera held up a hand. Children, please. Focus.

Oh, right. Whites are bad. So if White is bad now, then can we expect some help from the Blacks? That would just blow all our minds, I said making fists and spreading my fingers out with a ’pow’ sound.

Wait a sec. Wouldn’t doing this sort of mojo that not only harms the fairies they use, but also the fae that took it and anyone the fae might accidentally hurt under the influence or the vampires? Chera asked. And then cause karma backlash on them?

Actually, no, I said. Harming fairies and fae doesn’t tarnish their shiny karmas. We’re not earth-born and so it doesn’t affect them at all. Nor does it affect them when the fae run around wild like that. From there, that’s too far a stretch for the karma to come back at them. And remember a witch can get around the karma rebound if they cast a spell on someone who then, say, convinces someone else to do something naughty. Distance from them. And I have no idea of the fine rules of the karma rebound effect but I do know Other realm creatures are not part of the deal. Still, they’re breaking their code. Their code doesn’t specify do not do what smuts your karma, just ‘do not do harm‘. It’s impossible to do but it’s just the idea of it. This is specifically harmful but not metaphysically tainting.

That’s why fae rather hated the Whites as well because back in the day it was the Whites who hooked up with the Church to hunt down the fae in a Purge. Sometimes they forget where they come from and who they are. The fae didn’t have that problem, but they didn’t forgive, not even the children or grandchildren of the ones’ who wronged them.

It made for a complex and weird situation actually because some fae really kept track of their bloodlines. They protected them and watched out for them even if they were completely watered down witch families. Some fae were like that. While other fae held long-standing grudges against other witch families because their ancestors were involved in the Purge. So what happened was some fae actually had feuded over certain witch groups. It was really quite amazing what fae would fight about.

Maybe when making this drug they need to pull in energy and that would make the business sector glitch, right? Cause they’re in a network of shielding, Chera said.

That’s very likely right. What they need to do to collect fairies had to be some serious magic, I said. I’m sure Lan is looking forward to the takedown part, but no more than I on this one. One vial of that crap has to have the dust from hundreds of young pixies. Hundreds of deaths into making enough for someone to get high.

Some high fae considered the pixies to be like rodents which was how they got the generic term faeries to begin with. They were so ‘common’. However, even they would be horrified they were eating them. Or... snorting them? Either way, horrified. And they were because when faeries died they burst into fairy dust. I assumed that death dust was being used in the making of the drug as well. So essentially fae were doing a drug on the death dusting of hundreds of faeries.

Then we’re looking at a faction in the Whites. A small group of fanatics acting alone, Dill said. Otherwise the Accord witches, including the White rep, wouldn’t have asked us to look into it. And the White Coven wouldn’t have permitted us the job to look into the business area.

A small group since they had at least a few werewolves dispersing them. I’m not feeling the love from this city. So we got the why and the who, but the how is different, I said. Lana could a leech, one of those rare ones that can take in energy from outside of themselves and have it not affect their aura still be seen as a White? If they never leeched from a person that is?

Well, male sorcerers have their own society that finds and acquires leeches to teach them how it’s truly done. On the female side of things, if they’re raised Black then they’re leeches, and if they’re raised White and are found quickly enough they are called something or other. But yeah, if they don’t touch lifeforce energy they’re not a black leech. The problem is most of them accidentally do long before they’re found.

The reason I ask is that the amount of power needed to open a rift in Faerie to snag some fairies is immense, like taking a coven to accomplish. But one sorceress with a few equally fanatical friends could do it. Then hire the werewolves to be their runners, I said. We know the witch we’re looking for is powerful but we know she must have followers as well.

The one sending the note was not White, Chera said.

The vague notes I’d received suggested our witch was on the Black spectrum, cursed by my King, and had served my former Queen. She had started all this chaos in the attempt to force me to remove that curse. That suggested a lot of hate and perhaps psychosis.

There is that, I replied. But then we don’t know how many of them there are. Not all of them could be White. The messenger might be a follower in the city who got the note in our business and that’s what you picked up on.

So how do we find the ones at fault and shut them down? Zanon asked.

Damn fine questions since they were hiding at the Coven House of the Whites no less.

All right. We’re going to have to be sneaky about this. First, Zanon, you’re on fae patrol. Dill, I want you to detain and question the werewolf. Viv and Lan can be on the vamp side. Any fae that’s infected with this damn thing needs to be confined at the Embassy. Don’t take them to Inter. They have enough and the King isn’t liking it.

We learned from the Inter Coven that this drug was designed to spread with contact through touch and also was designed to increase in effects of those who had contact with it. So if we thought vampires going nuts on fae was bad, wait until we all start peaking on the crap. Including me.

So we just keep holding? Viv asked.

Yeah, we need to keep on the containment side of things. I already informed the king of the information we have on the drug and the need for containment. Inter will be handling the spellcraft, in hopes of finding a way to stop the spread or treat the infected or whatever else their witchy minds can come up with. Chera, Lana and I will infiltrate the Whites and see if we can mark who the sorceress is and tag her. Lana will tag any with tracers and hopefully, once we have narrowed it down we can watch those to find which the witch we want is. And actually might even tag some potential followers if she’s choosing those like her in nature.

Yeah, one problem with that plan, Lana said. They would never let me go there. I would taint the place with my presence.

Well, we’re going to get the White Accords rep to give us a tour. She will get us in there, trust me, although the only one welcome there will be Chera.

No way in hells deepest darkest hole is that woman going to believe some White is a drug dealer, Dill said.

Hey, I was in that deepest darkest hole, so anything possible. We’re not going to mention that part anyway. We’re going to say that one of the young White novices may be a leech, but if she is found soon enough she won’t taint her aura with personal energy and will be taught properly to harness it. We will say the reason we suspect this, is that the disruptions in the business area are from someone drawing power in, perhaps when they’re upset, or perhaps not even knowing it.

Dill glared at the map fiercely as though he didn’t quite trust it. He scrubbed a hand over his scalp, messing up his already messy hairstyle. He didn’t even have the decency to look the least bit tired from all the vamp duty he had been on. Hardly fair at all. Dinged up a bit. He had a nasty cut on his forehead that had partially healed due to his shifter blood, which meant it had been a real bleeder. A faint trace of a black eye. A few bite marks on his forearm as well. The gleam in his kitty eyes suggested this was the best time he had had in decades. He always was a bit of a scrapper. Unfortunately, the more he fought the more feral he got. He was after all a Faerie-born shifter who appeared human, not a human who could shift into animal form.

This may be a false lead, Dill warned. But it’s the only thing we got. Make sure she gives you the full tour and not some bullshit one to appease you. Make sure you mentally map the place out since we may have to infiltrate the place later.

I doubted very much we would have the time to whip up a plan the infiltrate the White House. Just wasn’t the sort of place a small team like us really could get into without some serious preparation and even then it would require a lot of luck. Those guys knew defence like no other.

Sure, but once I do and we find this rebel sorceress how the hells are we going to get them out of the coven house? Whites would flip if we even tried to bring charges and go through Inter. Then we would never get in and our suspects would be long gone.

I may be awesome and impressive in all ways, but even I can‘t silently without warning have our team do an entirely undisruptive grab and run, because we wouldn’t get past their wards and shields. Simple as that.

Once we have confirmation, we can figure something out. Maybe luring them out by starting a rumour that the Whites will be doing a careful sweep of the House. Something. You have to think cleverer. You’re a devious fae after all. If you cannot go to them, get them to come to you, he said. We can get creative if we have to. However, if we have them tagged we can begin to stalk them.

If devious was in my blood then it must be a recessive gene. At least I had a strategic panther on my side who loved the idea of stalking his prey. However, he was entirely right. We had a lot of options if we could spell tag our suspects.

I would rather like this game to start turning the other way, I muttered.

Working this fast, as in scrambling to find and shut down these dealers was never a good way to hunt. They might spot you and run or spot you and fight. We just had no other choice when the fae were going to be going loony. Plus having our prey blackmailing me to force my hand and watching me by means unknown was a rather unfair advantage.

Ah, what about you, Ray? You were infected by that spell and as I recall, it didn’t go over so well for you, Zanon said and then grinned at my scowl.

Fine. I’ll take a day of rest. I sighed. I did have other pressing matters to attend to. I’ll go to the realtor down the street and take a look at the houses she picked out for me and make an appointment to go check one out tonight. I need a place for the King on King meeting to prepare anyway. You can collect my demon doc and drop him off at the house. I’ll do some work of shoring up the internal structure so I don’t flip out like I did before. I know I’m just as infected as the rest of them and I know it will get worse. Well, the damage to the fae rep is pretty much there now. From the emails, I’m getting about news articles it has fired up quite the debate. I’m not sure if this is going to screw our massive tourism trade or improve it. Right now though it’s taking a loss. Not sure the King cares that he actually gets revenue from that.

That is acceptable, Zanon said with a nod.

So glad you think so, I snapped.

Although I don’t like the idea you will be unprotected in witch territory, he added, I was sure just to piss me off.

They won’t permit a demon there.

I understand that. I still don’t like it.

I stared him down for a long moment debating if I was going to start up a real fight about the fact I didn’t give a damn what he liked or didn’t like.

I can go talk to Isabella, Chera offered, likely seeing my ‘spitting angry face’.

I turned my mind to that idea instead. The fact of the matter was that even though Chera may not be as eloquent or as intimidating, she had the poor me waif thing down and the Whites loved her. The White Accords representative could be a pain in the ass to deal with, but even she had a soft spot for Chera. Yeah, I think that would work.

Can I come to the realtor shop? Lana asked. I would like to see for myself what’s up with their wards. Not that I don’t trust Chera, but I think I would be able to tell if the drain is from a sorceress.

Fine by me, I said. I need to get a new place pronto. It’s going to take time we don’t have to ward the shit out of that place. With all the fae ditching I need a new place immediately that’s not quite in the main District.

While Lana did her witchy business I took the time to hunker down with Dill and Zanon to discuss strategy and compare notes. After that, I spent some time hacking into the fae embassy recall notices looking for Ancients incoming and flagging them. I needed to find just one old enough who might remember an ancient black witch cursed by our King.

I sent the names to my email to look up later because I was not about to ask for information from just anyone. No doubt the information wouldn’t come free or for cookies either. So I would dig up information on the few selectees who fit the bill and pick which one I hoped would be most inclined to know who this witch might be and have the least painful price to bear. Another long shot really. Hard to say if anyone really would know what went down between the king and that witch. However, they might know what when down by word of mouth or know someone else I could talk to.

Chapter 2

Finally, I grabbed Lana and we headed out. We were on our way out of the building as a man was entering. We both stopped in our tracks and stared. Okay, we gawked. He was by far the most stunning man I had ever seen and that was saying a lot given I was raised by a race that battered you right in the face with their beauty. Daoine sidhe Seelie though had a sort of sharp beauty and I’d felt the cut of it enough to not be drawn to it unless compelled.

This man, who was definitely fae, had a softer look to his features. They were compelling but more sensual and seductive. His lips full and kissable, his rich purple eyes dark and wide with thick black lashes made him that much more appealing. His hair was thick, black and down to his waist but I saw streaks of purple in it as well. Damnnn.

Raylien? he inquired and even his voice was smooth as liquid honey.

As soon as my brain began to operate I knew who he was. It was the sort of honey gold of his skin tone that gave it away and the abnormal beauty as well. He was Tylwyth Teg. They were one of the races spawned by Oberon with one of the other Faerie Lower Queen’s in ancient days. I think their founding mother was Titania as all her brood were oh so pretty. I had memorized the births of each race line when I was younger, but it was exceptionally boring.

The elven races that came to Faerie were the first inhabitants but living in a realm of wild magic changed a people. It also created races. Each of the queens and kings spawns new races because they had lived so long when the wild magic was at its peak in those Founding years.