Page 17 of Wooing the Wiccan (Elf Magic #1)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Jared

His question fills me with a combination of curiosity and wariness. “What does that mean?” My eyes rise to the top of his head to double-check. “You don’t have horns. Are you saying you’re a demon?”

“No, I’m not a demon. There’s someone I know—someone who might be better at answering your questions than me—whose boyfriend is a demon.

I could call him, see if they’ll come over.

” He pauses. “Gideon—the demon—is rather… taciturn, but he’s a good man.

Sam is a shifter, but for most of his life he thought he was human.

It was a surprise for him to learn about other species. ”

Wait… “How did he think he was human if he’s a shifter? Did another shifter bite him and force him to transform?” I may never leave my house again. Do silver bullets actually work on shifters? Just in case one decides to make me one of them.

Raeulfr rubs his brow. “I’m doing this all wrong. Let me tell you about each of the species that are native to Earth, and then you can decide if you want to meet Sam and Gideon.”

It’s unlikely, but I nod.

“I’ve told you about demons. You also saw a shifter tonight. There are two kinds, canid—that’s what you saw—and felid.”

I squint, applying my very sketchy knowledge of Latin. “Dog and cat?”

“Basically. I’m not sure how much attention you were paying to what the canid looked like?—”

“Big.”

Raeulfr nods. “Yes. Canid shifters are much larger than the canines you’re used to seeing.

They’re also bigger in their biped forms. They’re a completely different species from canines and humans—not a mix or a transformation from one to the other.

They have their own evolutionary path. So do felids.

They might share traits with some big cat species, the same as they share some with humans, but ultimately, they are neither.

All those movies where a werewolf bites a human and the human becomes a werewolf are just fiction. ”

That’s a relief. “So these shifters just walk around as humans, and then sometimes they change into giant dogs and cats?”

“They live their lives just like everyone else.” A tiny smile tugs one corner of his mouth. “The canids are generally very enthusiastic. They throw the best parties, and if one befriends you, it’s generally forever.”

Okay, that actually sounds kind of nice. I take a little breath. “So why the secrecy? If they’re not evil and don’t force people to become like them, why are they hiding?”

“I’m getting to that,” he promises. “Quickly, let me tell you about the other species.”

My brows shoot up. “There’s more?”

Raeulfr nods. “The pregame show tonight? Remember how you said if you couldn’t see for yourself that it wasn’t magic, you would have thought it was?”

And he got all weird about it. “Yeah.”

“It was sorcery. Sorcerers are another species, very similar to humans, but where humans use magic by drawing from the life force, sorcerers have their own inner well of power to draw from, and they weave the threads of that power into spells, rather than casting them.”

“Which is why I couldn’t see it,” I realize, wondering what other differences there are between the magic I do and what sorcerers… weave.

“The remaining two species native to Earth are vampires and incubi,” Raeulfr says, adding quickly, “Remember that modern language has twisted the meanings of those words.”

“So vampires don’t suck blood, and incubi don’t feed off sex?”

He winces. “They do, but neither needs to kill to do so. And just like shifters, they’re completely separate species, so there’s no changing humans into vampires.”

I give myself a moment to digest that, trying not to freak out too much at the thought that the world is so different from what I believed. He makes them all sound almost ordinary, but I don’t think I could ever be okay with knowing that the person walking past me in the grocery store is a vampire.

Raeulfr seems to be waiting for me to say something, but I don’t know what I can say at this point. I’m still angry. I still don’t have all the answers I want. I still don’t know what I don’t know.

So I wait.

A moment later he continues. “A long time ago, humans lived in harmony with the other species. Nothing was perfect, but there wasn’t secrecy and hiding.

Each species has their leader, invested by the life force, and there were two leaders to oversee the governing of all species—one for the spiritual plane, and one here.

The one on the spiritual plane bears the title of god.

” He watches me closely, and I bet he can see when my world tilts on its axis.

“You’re saying god is real?” He can’t mean the god that was shoved down my throat while I was growing up. The god I believe in now, maybe—a representative of nature?

“I’m saying that the life force routinely elects a leader for the spiritual plane, and that person is the god. Here on the physical plane, the leader is called the lucifer.”

I jolt. “What?”

“Those words predate modern religion,” he says steadily.

“You’ll understand in a moment. Around nine thousand years ago, there was a clan leader who decided to begin annexing nearby territory.

That happened occasionally, because people are people, but eventually this clan leader’s actions got out of hand.

His species leader tried to pull him into line, and when that didn’t work, the lucifer stepped in and stripped the clan of all the territory it had taken, returning it to its previous owners. ”

If this story didn’t have words like “lucifer” and “demon” in it, I’d be pretty sure of what direction it was heading, but honestly, I don’t know anything anymore. “I bet the clan leader wasn’t happy about that.”

Raeulfr shakes his head. “No. That was the beginning of the Species Wars. The clan leader began spreading outrageous stories, feeding small discontents among all the people until old tensions and friendly rivalries turned into serious issues. Fights broke out that turned into battles, pitting species against each other indiscriminately. The rancor spread, until all of Earth was a battleground. The lucifer was hobbled, for one of the rumors spread was that the lucifer’s presence on Earth was a punishment, that they had been cast out of the spiritual plane.

Everyone knew it wasn’t true, but others who wanted an excuse to defy the lucifer’s edicts seized on it, and… ” He lifts his hands helplessly.

“Cast out of the spiritual plane?” I echo. The entire mythology that Christianity is based on came from an asshole making up stories to drag someone’s reputation through the mud?

“It’s not true,” Raeulfr assures me, and I wave him off. I already know that. “Over the next few hundred years, the belief that the lucifer was ‘the devil’ took root among humans. They deemed canid shifters ‘hellhounds,’ a nickname that has lasted to this day.”

That seems weird, but it’s not the most important question I have. “The war lasted hundreds of years ? What ended it?”

“Things came to a head when humans began weaponizing magic as they never had before. The other species were forced to put aside their differences and band together in an attempt to survive, but slowly, humans were using magic to wipe them out.”

“How?” I demand. “You said before that magic is the life force and that it’s sentient. How could it allow one species to kill others?”

“As I understand it, deception. When you perform a small magic, what do you spell for?”

I shake my head, confused, and he adds, “Putting out the candle. What did you use your magic to do?”

“Put out the candle,” I repeat sarcastically, then gasp as I get it. “No, I used magic to move air. The candle going out was a consequence of that.”

“Exactly. It was your goal, but it wasn’t what you asked the life force to do.”

My head spins as the implications sink in, and I put a hand over my mouth. I’ve spent so many years living by the edict do no harm and glorying in the beautiful power of nature that the idea of that energy being used to not only harm, but annihilate, makes me sick.

“What happened?”

“The life force realized what was being done and stepped in directly. As I’ve been told, the world went dark, and when the light returned, humans no longer remembered that other species existed—or that they had the ability to use magic.”

“They just forgot?” No way.

“Apparently. The other species were all granted some new abilities that allowed them to glamor themselves, and since then, the community of species has hidden from humanity.”

I stare at my hands, trying to make everything make sense. “You said that happened nine thousand years ago.”

“More or less.”

“How is it possible that humans haven’t found out? We’re digging up old civilizations all the time! A skull with horns or fangs would be a pretty big find.”

Raeulfr shrugs. “The life force protects. There are humans who know, either by accident or—” He stops sharply.

“Or what?” I narrow my eyes. “No more secrets.”

Reluctantly, he says, “Living amongst humans, it would be impossible for relationships not to form. If they reach a certain level of seriousness, permission can be sought to share the secret.”

I blink at him, feeling like he just punched me in the stomach, and logic and reason flee. “So you weren’t serious enough about me to ask for that permission?”

“I was—I am . But the law sets out a timeline, and we haven’t been together long enough to meet the criteria.” He looks me dead in the eye. “I had every intention of applying for the dispensation. I’ve memorized that law, and I was only waiting for the time to be right.”

“What was tonight about, then? Community Hockey League… I’m guessing the words ‘of species’ are missing from that?”

He grimaces. “Tonight was a mistake on my part. I asked a colleague for advice on where our date should be, and forgot that he doesn’t know you’re human. I don’t usually follow hockey as a sport, so I didn’t realize this wasn’t a human league until it was too late.”

Rubbing my hands over my face, I wish I knew what to believe right now. What to feel. What to ask next, because somehow I know there’s more to this story.

The most random question pops into my head, and I throw it out there to buy myself time to think of the next one. “Do humans have a species leader?”

Raeulfr opens his mouth, then closes it.

“I… don’t know. I think you must, but since you’ve lost your knowledge of the life force and the dual planes, you don’t know who they are.

” He smiles sadly. “If you ever meet another human who makes you feel as though everything is right in the world, that’s likely them. ”

My chest tightens with the loss of something I never knew I should have, and I cast around for a distraction. “So the government you work for…?”

“Not a human government,” he confirms, and once again, I try to think what DEA might stand for. “Jared?”

I look at him. That handsome face that sent shivers down my spine just hours ago is solemnly earnest.

“I don’t know who your species leader is, but I can introduce you to the lucifer.”

Butterflies take up residence in my stomach, and I’m not sure if they’re the nervous or excited kind. “You can?”

He nods. “The shifter I was talking about before, Sam? He’s the current lucifer, and I know he’d be happy to help you work through all of this. I can call him, and Gideon would bring him right over. Or we can go to them.”

I consider it carefully. Do I really want to meet a shifter and a demon?

Someone who’s called “the lucifer”? Have strangers witness the breakdown I’m pretty sure I’m heading toward?

No, I don’t. But on the other hand, the idea of meeting a person selected by the essence of the universe to be its mouthpiece on Earth…

that would be kind of cool. Raeulfr said people feel secure in the presence of the invested leaders.

This could be a way to determine whether Raeulfr is truly trying to earn back my trust. At the very least, it’ll buy me some time to think.

“Call him.”