Magic & Home

By Alexa Piper

Over the past two years, Rory has learned that other people aren’t the best of company, that the guilt of causing the Apocalypse is a heavy burden, and that monsters only see him as a meal. Until Rory met Inkiri, who sees Rory as his mate.

Now, Rory has to navigate what it means to be with someone who not only isn’t human but who also is from another world altogether… and since Rory finds himself in that otherworld all of a sudden, he has to adapt fast. Inkiri definitely has no intention of slowing down in his quest to make his human mate happy.

While Rory is beginning to wrap his head around liking the new place and the new customs, he can’t relax into a peaceful happily ever after because whatever connection Rory has to the magic that unleashed the Apocalypse, people want that, meaning they want him. Where Rory and his newfound family ran to may not have been far enough to escape their pursuers’ clutches.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Oct 7, 2022

Book preview

Introduction

Dear Reader,

Welcome back to the world of Monster Apocalypse. I hope you’ll enjoy the food and the sights, the people we meet along the way.

But it’s the people we already know who interest you, I’m sure: Rory and Inkiri, and Rory’s guys, of course. They are all back for more adventure, so let’s get right to that!

Before we start -- don’t forget to leave a review of this book. It really helps me out.

Now then, let’s go see what Magic & Home is all about.

See you in the next one!

Alexa Piper

Chapter One

The sun had risen, and the room in the hotel was no longer shadows of charcoal and ash but honeyed wood and fabrics of red and blue in the bedding and pillows. I was wrapped in big blue monster. Literally. Inkiri, the big blue monster in question, was all over me. Also still in me, but really, a barbed cock in my ass no longer felt as weird as maybe it should have.

How do you even sleep with those horns? I asked. Inkiri had been devotedly licking my neck, and with him being so much bigger than me, that meant his ibex horns had gotten pretty close to my face. They were a little bit intimidating.

Inkiri looked up, and it was now bright enough in the room that I could see him properly -- the light blue skin, the ink-dark hair and indigo eyes. His hair was still unbraided. I knew we’d only gotten here, to Aër, yesterday after the shootout and the violence that had happened at the Stone of Destiny back in Ireland, and he’d mostly taken care of me. Doing his braids had been pretty low on his list of important things. What I did remember from that strange state of being unable to interact but knowing was that I had been Inkiri’s top priority, that he’d cared for me, worried for me. He’d barely even left my side.

Pillows, he said and fluffed one above my head. Among all the fluffy ones on the bed I’d noticed, the one he was showing me was harder than any pillow I would find comfortable, but that made sense. More support so he wouldn’t lie on those horns. How are you feeling, sweet thing? he asked in his sexy, British accent.

He looked down on me with those cat eyes. Those very loving cat eyes. A warm shiver chased over my skin, and it was a bit much, to be honest. Or almost a bit much. Well, with being on Earth no longer, it was a bit much.

Fine, I said and looked around the room.

It was now really bright out, a sunny day, but milky screens on the inside of the windows hid the glass and dimmed the light.

I could tell the room was not quite what you’d find on Earth. Most of it was hardwood flooring except for where we were, the bed, or bedding. Thickly woven carpets were piled beneath the bedding, which was pretty soft, actually. Surprisingly soft for pretty much sleeping on the floor, futon-style.

Inkiri’s swords were on the floor next to the bedding, which was not where I would have put them, but okay. Maybe sleeping next to your swords was a thing here.

The only other thing I could see in the room was a low table with several seating cushions around it and a stoneware pot of tea or water next to some cups.

My stomach immediately reacted to the visual cue of food-related items and growled noisily.

Inkiri chuckled. Fine but hungry? He kissed the side of my mouth human-style. Come, let’s clean you up and feed you, sweet thing.

I guess I could eat, I said, and I definitely could. A whole… whatever they served here. I wasn’t sure when my last meal had been, but probably before I had puked all over the corpse of the big orange spider back at the monster place.

The memory of the memorable arachnid also brought back the memory of how the cola ash -- the Koa Esher -- had waylaid us and how Inkiri had said good-bye to me when Vergis had dragged me away. Remember it always, sadir, he’d said. That I loved you. From the moment I saw you. I buried my head in his chest at the memory, relieved to the bottom of my soul that I didn’t have to remember but that he was still here to remind me.

I love you, I told him. What can I say? Dwelling on the past always made me very emotional.

And I you, sadir, Inkiri said. He clicked at me and ran his warm palms down my back. But as much as I would like to keep you in bed, I’ll not let you go hungry.

Inkiri clicked as he pulled out of me slowly. His barb had gone down, thankfully, and also thankfully, he was still slick with his own lubricant. I looked down between us at his massive, self-lubricating and darker blue dick. The top part with its more bulbous and pointier tip still amazed me as did that fact that thing had been in me. With barbs that kept it inside. And I’d sort of liked the thing with the barbs. That was the weirdest part.

Inkiri was extremely graceful for his size, and he was on his feet quickly and just as quickly, he gathered me in his arms.

I think you are a bit too light, he said as he walked to the wall on the opposite side of the bed area. I’d like to plump you up.

I snorted. Hard no. If I’m all juicy and plump, I’ll have trouble running from monsters, and they’ll think I’m, you know… Juicy and plump.

He put me on my feet, and to my surprise, slid the wall aside. The wall wasn’t a wall at all but a wooden sliding screen that worked as the door to an en suite bathroom. Which was very neat. I knew we were at an inn or hotel-like place, and since the small glimpses I’d seen of bagu culture were closer to the Middle Ages in terms of technology, this was a pleasant surprise.

Even the set-up was luxurious: a basin set in the floor, about half the size of a regular tub and no deeper than the middle of my calves, a pretty normal-looking sink with a round bowl on the other wall. A shelf on the left held plenty of towels and some small containers of what I assumed were cleaning products. They had neat script on them.

I pointed. Is that… your language, LaGuardia?

He clicked as I went over there and picked one of the containers up. Lugarra, that’s right.

Oh, I said when he picked me up again and set me down in the mini tub to clean me up.

He clicked along and took my left wrist to take off the friendship bracelet Lissir had picked out for all of us.

Hey, wait. That needs to be cleaned with soap if this is soap? I shook the container. I’d been wearing the bracelet back on the monster world, and that had been so yucky.

Inkiri hummed. I’ll do it later. Let’s take care of you first, sadir.

He turned up a faucet with a wide, rectangular spout and used a soft sponge to soak and wipe. And that was necessary, because damn. My monster produced a lot of cum.

I am sorry, sweet thing. That I disappointed you. But I do intend to keep you safe, to make it so you never again have to fear a monster again. Or anything. I don’t want you to have to worry about running from anything.

He took the container I was still holding and sprinkled some of the powder in it all over my skin before massaging that in with the sponge. It foamed a little bit and smelled amazing. Cotton candy and roasted nuts. The scent made me feel nostalgic.

I can wipe myself down, you know, I said. And I didn’t mean it like that when I said I don’t want to get too juicy. I was trying to be funny. I don’t expect you to, I don’t know, kill off all monsters in order to keep me safe. That’s not very realistic.

Rory, he began, but then stopped himself with an aborted kind of sigh. Let me at least take care of you after making love. That is what you call pleasure play, yes?

I giggled. Yeah. And pleasure play? That’s the word here?

Yes.

Sort of more accurate, I guess.

He hummed and diligently worked the sponge all over my skin. For my hair, he used powder from a different container, although the scent was the same.

After Inkiri wrapped me in a towel, he showed me the toilet, which was next to the shower area and also separated from the main room with a screen. It was the fancy European-style double design with a bidet. I’d basically expected a hole in the ground, so this was really fancy for a culture that was probably a little behind what Earth had been like before the Apocalypse. Or what my corner of Earth had been like, because of the privilege of the developed world. And seeing all of this made me wonder whether I was underestimating bagu culture.

When I came back into the main room, Inkiri was done cleaning himself and stood there, a towel around his waist. He did have a nice chest, even if he didn’t have nipples. I ached to snap a picture of that chest and post it, which made me remember my stuff.

Oh! Do you know where my backpack went? I asked.

He sighed and dropped his head. I saved it after the Koa Esher attacked and you and Vergis left. We took it to the Hill of Tara with us, but then the humans attacked.

I gaped. Wait, what? Hold on. Did you just say -- I thought the Koa Esher caught up to us back at the Hill?

He clicked at me. No. Those were humans, shooting guns. And when we arrived there, we obviously checked for signs of anyone lingering or living in the area, and there were none. Which means they came there, likely with a purpose. It’s possible they had a scout watching.

Oh. I… I had no idea. I’m sorry, I said.

He tilted his head. Why are you sorry? Because you are human also? That doesn’t make all humans your responsibility. He walked toward me and took my left wrist, brought it to his mouth, and licked over it. Then, he put the now cleaned friendship bracelet back on me. His own had a lot of dark blue stones, but also an emerald one, just like most of my bracelet.

Thanks, I said and ran my fingers along the stones of my bracelet. The strange knowledge in my head had given me the impression I was connected to the guys, and not just through the power of a few friendship bracelets, even though they were at least something real and tangible.

My pleasure, sadir. Inkiri pointed to a bundle of clothes that sat in a basket on the floor. The rikori washed these for us, but I also asked them for a set of clothes for you. Aër clothes. I thought maybe you’d like to wear them here. He lifted one item off the top, my cute cat socks. There’s still one pair left of these.

He was holding them out somewhat bashfully. He probably thought he had disappointed me, but I was just glad he and the others were okay.

I’ll try the Aër clothes. Put my socks on me? I asked, and that made my big blue monster smile.

* * *

Aër smelled different. That was the first thing I noticed the moment Inkiri slid the door of our room aside. When Vergis had taken me here after the monster world, the scent of those small white flowers that made you high after you chewed them had permeated the air, but here, I got a noseful of what it was like being in a city, not in a forest.

I wasn’t sure how exactly to categorize the differences on the air, especially since a lot of what had been normal back on Earth once had now changed. Wide-eyed, I walked past Inkiri onto a wooden porch outside our room that was separated from a garden with a decorative banister carved with vines and flowers that looked straight out of a fairy tale, but probably bloomed here somewhere.

I looked out over the banister, which was, of course, tall since bagua were tall. The air here carried flowery scents from pots and small flowerbeds I saw around the area, and I was pretty sure I could smell water or mud as well. Patches of moss rather than grass made up most of the garden, and the earth looked moist, even had some puddles here and there. From the moss, small white and red flowers lifted their heads to the sun.

And those were just the first impressions. More wooden and roofed walkways connected several buildings here, and they ran above the wetland garden area with no way of stepping off and heading into the garden itself. Maybe the garden here was just to look at and not to spend time in. It looked pretty enough for that, like an enchanted place where woodland sprites played catch. It was even… kind of romantic.

What do you think of that place, sadir? Inkiri asked.

I looked back at him. He was leaning against the doorframe, looking pleased.

Wow, I said, but my looking around was roughly interrupted by Nokim, who was jogging along the porch and headed straight for me. He was wearing the purple hotel clothes with the blue flower patterns, same