Page 8 of The Baby Hex (Mori’s Mementos #2)

Mori

This time Dern knocked the air out of me when he yoinked me out of my body. I panted on his Other World kitchen floor while a woman with pointed ears and wild hair that made a curtain around us and eyes that whispered of cruel deeds straddled over me.

“Give him some space, Floria,” Dern sighed as a man with big, brown phoenix wings pulled the dead elf off me.

“Thanks, Ormund. But what in the fuck happened to sending messages? I thought you said this would happen once!” I stared daggers at Dern who sat at his table sipping tea as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

“Well, I decided to do things differently than the Postcard Men who recruited me. Besides, this is a secret. A big, fat, juicy secret. Writing about it and hoping that you’re the one who finds it was too much to hope for.

I’m not sloppy like that. I didn’t live as long as I did being sloppy like that.

Ormund, love, take her back to her room.

She’s caused enough trouble for one night. ”

Ormund was Dern’s true-mate and even in death they made googly eyes at each other. It sort of stung to watch them look at each other. Even dead men had better love lives than I did.

“That sort of hurt,” my wolf sounded off in my thoughts.

It had hurt. A lot. The dead elf woman – whatever her name was – had body slammed me as soon as I materialized in the kitchen.

“I waited until you were sitting down in the car alone,” Dern said.

“I wasn’t alone. Preston was there.”

“See, someone to make sure no one kidnaps your empty body,” Dern nodded. “You accepted this role. You were excited about it. No one ever said it was going to be easy.”

“Well, you didn’t tell me you’d make it into a contact sport.”

“I honestly didn’t think Floria would slam into you.

She’s been very anti-touch. Doesn’t want to smell like dogs and all that.

You know how bigots are. Now, get your tail off the floor and join me for some tea.

The longer you lay around down there wallowin’ around the longer your body is empty, and I know how much you hate that. ”

“You’re an asshat sometimes, Dern,” I grumbled and rolled over before pushing myself onto my feet and joining him at the kitchen table.

Dern’s edges were never going to be completely smoothed out. Not even death could do that. Still, he was gracious enough to have me a cup of tea, steeped and ready.

“I do what I need to do. It’s the only way I know how to be,” Dern nodded. “Drink up. It’ll keep you from being achy when you get back to the world of the living. She got you good.”

I took a long, slow swallow of the hot tea. Cinnamon and vanilla danced on my tongue and warmed me up as it traveled into my stomach. Its soothing warmth spread throughout my body. I tried to ask again about the dead elf but Dern nodded for me to finish my tea first.

“How quaint. Gets us attacked and then tries to play gracious host,” my wolf grumbled as I finished drinking the tea.

“Now, tell me who the hell she is,” I said, fighting off the urge to slap his table.

“Floria of the Meadow Elves,” Dern shrugged.

“Meadow Elves?” I asked.

I wasn’t sure of Crilus’s dead grandmother’s name, but I knew the clan. Everyone knew the clan. The old elven clans were so entwined that almost every elf alive was either somehow descended from one of them or had ancestors who fought against them.

“Yes, her. She’s the one who went to war because Creon wouldn’t go home and make babies with a mate of her choosing. She killed her own mate and tortured her kids on a psychological level. A real Mommy-Knows-Best-Bitch,” Dern nodded.

“Why is she here and not rotting in Frost’s Pit?” I asked, crinkling my nose and suddenly wanting to wash my spirit in the sink to get any of her lingering darkness off me before I dragged it home to my body.

“Well,” Dern leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out under the table.

“She was in the Pit. Frost and Juda think it’s high time she learned her lesson in a hands on way.

She’s going to be reborn a wolf. Well, a wolf-elf.

The Crow King probably won’t give her that part of the genetics but she’s going to be reborn and she’s going to live as what she hates.

Hopefully, it breaks her big brain enough that when that life is over she knows not to be a bigot. ”

“Wait? What? Is that even ethical? It’s like reincarnating Ni as a storm because ---”

“Nope!” Dern slapped that table and the wrongness of my words shuddered through me.

“She’s not afraid of wolves. It’s not like she’s running around with a phobia of rabies. She’s a bigot who believes wolves are lesser creatures.”

“I know. I… I don’t know how to---”

“If you can’t say it without sounding like you’re supporting a bigot, you probably shouldn’t say it,” Dern said, tapping his fingers on the table.

“Will it help, though?” I asked.

“Eh, let her walk a mile in someone else’s shoes,” he said, pouring more tea into my cup. “You want some ice in that this time? It tastes good cold too.”

I nodded and Ormund appeared to bring ice to the table. He stole a kiss from his mate before disappearing back into the rest of the house.

“I wasn’t defending a bigot,” I sighed.

“You were because bigotry still exists. It’s not okay but you still have a lot of learning to do.

It’s not our responsibility to make them feel comfortable.

They kill people. In her case, lots of people.

So, if she feels uncomfortable, that’s okay.

Most folks didn’t feel all too cozy and validated while she killed them, tortured them, or caused their death, Zigmore. ”

“Shit,” I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck. “Do you know how long it’s been since someone called me that?”

“I wanted to remind you of your namesake, kiddo,” Dern shrugged. “Really, he wouldn’t have put up with it either. If you’re going to help people heal or carve out a better fate for Earthside and the other places you visit, you’re going to have to get very comfortable making others uncomfortable.”

“So, Creon is going to have his mother as his daughter?” I asked.

“No,” Dern shook his head. “Finish your tea.”

“This stuff is really good,” I said, cutting him a break and finally complimenting the tea.

Dern didn’t speak again until I had finished every last drop. Then he poured more over the ice and told me to drink up and I did. It was hard to resist the sugary sweetness of the tea washing down my throat.

“Good. Now that we’ve done that,” he said when the third mugful was empty.

“Done what?”

“Had your tea. Three cups ensures the magic takes,” Dern said.

“What magic?” I stood up, ready to throw fists because he’d already gotten me body slammed by my cousin’s evil dead grandmother.

“Sit down. Mori, you wouldn’t have won a fight against me while I was in the old folks’ home dying.

You certainly won’t win one now. I never lied to you about who I was.

I practically told you that to trust me one hundred percent of the time was foolish.

I told you who I was and how I dispatched assholes to the afterlife and enjoyed it.

I’m not murdering you. You’re not an asshole.

There’d be no vengeance to taste in your blood.

What I am doing is ensuring that what Frost and Juda want to happen can unfold in a way that I might not have to off that tyrant of an elf in her next life.

It’s just a very potent ‘bite your tongue’ potion.

You won’t be able to tell anyone that you’ve seen her or anything else I’m about to tell you. ”

I opened my mouth to protest but Dern held up a hand to stop me. I sat down and stared daggers at him again.

“The last time you were here you accused me of not giving you enough information about your next assignment. This isn’t exactly your next assignment but I’m feeling generous enough to give you a few more details.

That way, you can’t mess things up by trusting the wrong person, but you also know enough to help things along.

Technically, it might be your third assignment but it’s probably more of a long-term venture. ”

“Do you lay awake at night and think up new ways to be cryptic?” I asked him, trying to shove my frustrated wolf down. “Because in case you didn’t know it, we were attacked tonight. Do you really think this is the best time to be yoinking me out of my body?”

“I never want to be as young as you are again,” Dern said and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Everything is connected, Mori. Not just the things we discuss here. It’s all connected.

Existence inhales and exhales and everyone feels it.

Now, do you want to help me with Floria or not?

In case you want to know what’s in it for you – it’s about Crilus. ”

“What about him?” I grunted.

“Floria’s tried for him a few times. She’s known for a while what Frost and Juda’s plans are for her. She knows he’s the one who agreed to be her parent before he was born. This has been in the works for a long time.”

“So she’s going to try to kill him?” I asked, narrowing my eyes on him and glancing at the kitchen window. It was pitch night outside but if I jumped out of it would I find myself still in the Other World or would I land back inside my body in the car with Preston?

“No,” Dern shook his head. “She can’t. We’ve taken her into custody, and she can’t get out of the house until she’s ready to be reborn.

What she’s done is plant enough doubt in your cousin that he’s going to have a hard time handling his mating response.

It’s not his fault. It’s hers. She’s playing generational trauma like it’s a game of Bullshit. ”

“You called me here to say be a good friend to someone I’m already friends with and made me drink tea so I couldn’t tell anyone I’m trying to be a good friend?” I arched a brow at him.

“No, I told you so that you understand that Crilus’s fears are real. He’s not imagining things. All those horrible things have happened in his family lineage and this time it could happen again because he’s running from his mate. That’s the bad thing. He can run forever and never be happy.”

“I’ll tell him,” I said.

“You and I both damn well know that it’s not going to be that dang simple,” Dern said, leaning back in his chair.

“What do I do?”

“Look, Mori, I’m the killer. The hitman.

The destroyer of those who are cruel. I revel in it.

You’re the healer. This isn’t a warzone.

It’s a broken heart. It’s a scared guy. That’s your field of expertise or it will be by the time I’m done with you.

Figure it out.” Dern lifted his hand as if he would wave me back into my solid form.

“Wait! Before you send me away---”

“No, she’s not the one who blew out the windows. Neither is Jon. Though, he hightailed it out of there at double speed when he heard the explosion. You and Crilus aren’t the only ones with enemies.”

“Obviously not but that doesn’t narrow anything down, does it?” I asked.

“I told you plenty,” Dern sighed and waved me away.