5. Chapter 5

"Son-of-a-motherfucking-bitch!" Andy yelped as she was thrown back several feet and landed on her butt in the middle of the courtyard. She sat there for several seconds, shaking out her hands, which were throwing off little showers of power like one of those sparklers they give to children on holidays.

I pulled water from the air with a thought, absently puzzling over how everything natural in this pocket realm was at once familiar and foreign compared to the world in which I was used to existing. Forming the controlled blobs of water into hand-sized spheres, I sent them to engulf the witch"s hands to soothe the residual sting of the unstable magic she had just performed.

Pretty gray eyes met mine, and she gave me a wry smile. "Thanks. That"s really weird, but it feels amazing."

I smiled in return. Our witch was… complex. The emotions she gave off were a thick tangle of feelings that were so deeply entwined that I had difficulty separating them or naming them. I worried about her. She was always taking on more and more burdens, pushing aside her feelings so she could continue on with whatever needed doing. Oleander Lovell was sarcastic, and pessimistic, and put on a tough face, like nothing affected her. But I knew the truth. I could feel it in the air between us every time she was near. The heart of this woman was soft and caring, desperate for belonging, for the family that she never had. And she was wounded, bruised and beaten down by the constant stream of injustices in her life.

I banished the water and knelt beside her, ignoring the strain on my magic, my sensitivities pushed to the limit as I tried to absorb and transmute every worry and pain—for her, and for all the others who shared our isolated new home. I had never felt a sense of belonging like I did with these people, and I wasn"t about to let that fall apart. Not when I could see so much potential and yearning in each of them.

"Oleander," I said gently, tracing my fingertips along her cheek as I brushed her tangle of lovely green hair back from her face. "I can go alone. Or you can send one of the others. Tell us exactly what you need, and we will retrieve it."

I didn"t need my magical powers to sense her emotions. She stared at me with that mutinous expression that said she would rather die than accept help. "I can"t send you guys out there to do my dirty work. I"m not your master and you"re not my slaves. I"m not my ancestors."

I sighed. But I hadn"t expected any other answer. "As you wish." Calling back my magic, I took her hands and drew her to her feet, waiting patiently while she got her balance. Her condition was clearly taking a toll on her. I subtly ran my magic over her aura, doing what I could to balance the fluids and humors inside her body. But the illness was fueled by a powerful curse woven into her DNA. I couldn"t do much more than temporarily ease some of her symptoms.

"Thanks," she said again, this time softly, and without the wry look. She let the honest tiredness in her seep through, let me glimpse a bit of her weakness and fear. "I just… I need to do this."

I nodded in understanding. She needed to feel like she could do something. Anything. She felt helpless. And guilty. She felt she had brought this whole situation down upon herself. And there was guilt for involving the rest of us as well.

Shaking my head, I wrapped my arms around her and drew her in against my chest, resting my head against hers. I said nothing to appease her feelings of guilt and blame. I didn"t tell her it wasn"t her fault, that she had been pushed into making the best out of impossible situations, or that it wasn"t fair that she should have to suffer for her family"s wrongdoings. She knew all of that. She didn"t need a lecture. She needed… this. Comfort and quiet understanding.

Unlike my other stubborn, wounded lover, Oleander would eventually open up and stop pretending to be impervious to hardship, given a little time. She sank into my embrace with a sigh, wrapping her own arms around my waist and pressing her plush curves to my body, just absorbing all the comfort I sent pouring into her.

We stood like that for several moments, Andy"s emotions gradually starting to feel less desperate and more stable to my senses. I could have held her for hours, more than happy to ease her distress. But her insulin pump vibrated where it was pressed against my hip. Another warning about her dangerously high blood sugars or that she was out of insulin, no doubt.

She sighed and pushed herself upright, and I let her go. "Come on," she said with a glance at the questionable portal she had erected. "And I apologize in advance if you end up either dead yourself, or covered in bits of me when I explode."

This was the first time she had attempted to make a portal from this newly created realm to another realm. It had been harrowing to complete, and I was well aware there was no guarantee it would work the way it should. "It has been a pleasure knowing you," I said with a faint smile as I took her hand.

Ambrose had been back to the magic realm of Magea once since our pocket world was created, but the boogeyman was the only corporeal one of us who could travel through the dark in-between spaces that were the realm of ghosts and nightmares. Elijah could probably make the trip, if his essence didn"t dissolve with the transition, but the ghost couldn"t bring a physical item back with him when he returned.

It was important to know if we could do this. Because, while no one had really wanted to talk about it too much, we all understood that we couldn"t stay hidden away in this realm forever. Eventually we were going to have to travel back to Magea to deal with whatever waited for us there.

I glanced at Oleander one last time before we reached the portal, memorizing her beautiful visage and the vibrant life humming through her aura. One last glance, just in case we didn"t make it.

Then we stepped into the rippling vortex that—hopefully—was a bridge between realms.

It felt unlike other portals I had traveled through—some indefinable thing about it sent fear swirling through my being, a primal sensation that this was wrong and that I was in danger. Then we were through, my feet kissing solid ground in the Planus realm.

"Fuck yes!" Andy said with a relieved exhale. "We didn"t go splat. I think. You feel okay?"

I nodded. "I"m fine." I did my own inspection of her body and her aura to confirm that my companion was well. Or at least as well as she had been before we stepped into the portal. She was still sickly, and the knowledge made me feel more unsettled than I was used to. "The pharmacy?"

"Right," she nodded, forcing herself to focus on the task, rather than the amazing magical feat she had just performed by bringing us here. "We"d better hurry. I have no idea what spells or charms the SA might be using to look for us."

We had emerged at the edge of a field filled with the cut-off remains of golden cornstalks, but a town was visible not far away. Andy had said she was aiming to put the portal somewhere with no people to observe our appearance. It seemed her portal spell was more accurate than she hoped, because this location was perfect for going unnoticed.

We walked into town without incident. One thing I enjoyed immensely about Oleander Lovell was the easy companionship. She didn"t feel the need to fill the space between us with chatter, and she never pried into my thoughts or my past experiences as her family"s slave. She seemed content to simply be at my side, and for that, I was immensely grateful.

That was a large part of what drew all of her harem to her. We were, all of us, more than a little damaged, and so was she—she understood the value of simply being present for someone without trying to fix them.

My mind wandered to thoughts of Aahil as we walked. Our flame was healing slowly, and he was still full of so much pain and contradiction, he still struggled to hold on to his inner spark. But that he was still with us and making any progress at all was mostly because of the witch at my side. And for that, I would forever be grateful.

When I dreamed of being freed from the prison of the bestiary, I never expected to find love waiting for me, of all things. But I cared deeply for my new family, and both Oleander and Aahil had become a part of my heart. I prayed to every one of the old gods who had ever walked the earth, every day, to let us all come out of this safely. To let us all heal and be the family I knew we could be. I remembered a conversation I"d had with Ambrose when he first came to us. He had agreed to help me help the others. And I thought perhaps, once this minor hiccup over being hunted by the SA had passed, we might be close to achieving our goal.

"What are you smirking about?" Andy said, finally breaking the silence between us as we reached the edge of town and continued on down a sidewalk toward the main street where the pharmacy was located.

She was right. I had been smiling to myself like a fool. But I just smiled wider and leaned in to kiss her on the temple. "Nothing," I said softly. "Everything. You really are a remarkable force of nature, Oleander Lovell."

She lifted one eyebrow and looked at me like I was crazy. "Did that portal scramble your brain?"

I huffed a laugh. "Perhaps."

"Here," she said, pulling me to a halt near a park across the street from a small convenience store. "Sit here and wait for me," she instructed, pointing at a park bench. "Keep an eye out for SA people, and disappear if it seems dangerous."

I nodded my compliance and took a seat on the bench, soaking up the fresh fall air and the late afternoon sunshine while Andy crossed the street. I kept my attention on the storefront and the sidewalk and street nearby, but I couldn"t help soaking up some of the weak ambient magical energy that flowed through the plants and earth. The human-run Planus realm was lacking in ambient magic, but there was still a little trickle here and there, just enough to keep the realm alive. It had a distinct flavor from the magic back in the pocket world, steadier, more stable. More natural. It felt grounding, and I certainly needed that these days.

My own recent captivity hadn"t left me unaffected.

Andy was back soon, carrying a big bottle of spring water. "Okay," she said in a determined voice. "The pharmacy is a block away. It"s not the one I usually use, since I know the SA will have figured that out and planted some sort of trap. But I"m not sure any pharmacy is safe. They know I"m diabetic. It"s kind of obvious that the human realm would be where I"d go to get insulin."

I agreed. We had discussed all of this before. We had at first considered trying to obtain what she needed from another country, somewhere far away from where she had lived when she was pretending to be human, before the bestiary appeared in her life. But she said obtaining it might be harder. She couldn"t be sure of the same quality and formulation, and chances were the SA had people monitoring for that, too. So we had chosen a pharmacy a few towns away from where she had lived on this plane, hoping they would expect her to try either her own hometown or somewhere much further away.

Andy opened the cap of the water bottle as we headed toward the tan pharmacy building with its cheery little red and white striped awning. The symbol of healing was painted on the side of the building, a gimmick to the humans, who didn"t recall the concept of intent and ancient power that was associated with the healer"s staff. I pulled my attention away from the symbol and the serpent twined around it that harkened to my ancestry. The sun and shadow were painting interesting patterns of energy across the shape. But now was not the time to be distracted by shiny things.

I had considered accompanying Andy inside in my non-corporeal form, but if I dematerialized into the air, my magic would be more traceable, less subdued than it was in my human-like form. Smoothing a hand over my silvery hair, which I knew was unusual even among the humans with their dyes and bright statements of individualism, I held the door open for Andy.

She squared her shoulders and entered, going straight to the counter and giving the woman there her information. The clerk informed Andy that it would be about ten minutes before her prescription was ready.

Andy drummed her fingers restlessly on the countertop. I stretched my senses out around us, trying to sense any magic in the area. There was some, but it was faint—probably the trace magic left behind by visiting magic users or by the rare human with a bit of magic blood. Nothing on the scale of an SA employee.

Andy moved to the little waiting area, and I trailed after her as we both subtly kept track of where the pharmacist was getting the insulin vials, syringes, and needles from. When the woman called Andy"s name and came over to hand Andy the brown bag containing her order, we finally enacted our plan.

Andy spun the top all the way off the water bottle and yanked her arm up and to the side, spraying an arc of water into the air. I grabbed the water and manipulated it, quadrupling the volume with sympathetic magic and drawing more water from the surrounding air, before turning it to a stinging spray. Employees and patrons cried out as they were hit with the harsh, blinding rain, causing confusion and shock. Then I flicked a hand again, turning the water to mist, filling the place with a dense fog that made it impossible for a human to see more than a foot in front of them.

Andy swore as she fumbled her way behind the counter and over to the fridge, where they kept the insulin vials. "Shit, I can"t see anything!" But she could see better than the surrounding humans, and they were only now gathering their wits enough to try to figure out what was going on. Most of them had no idea magic even existed, and they couldn"t see Andy filling her backpack with insulin, so they made no move to stop us.

When Andy finally rejoined me, her backpack was stuffed with insulin, needles, and syringes. We ran for the door as my mist started to slowly disperse. We were outside on the sidewalk and across the street before anyone even realized they had been robbed.

"I hope no one dies because of me," Andy huffed as we ran back the way we"d come.

I arched a brow at her, and she elaborated. "People need this shit to live. What if I"ve saved myself but some sweet little old lady or cute kid gets sick because the pharmacy doesn"t have any insulin?"

I understood her concerns. Again, her heart was bigger than most gave her credit for. But I was confident that, in this instance, she was worrying for no reason. "They can go elsewhere, or the pharmacy can re-stock, but you have no other options, and we can"t keep coming back here on a regular basis."

She grunted her agreement. We rounded a corner and slowed to a walk so we would blend in with the other people on the sidewalk. Andy held one arm across her middle, but I didn"t think it was just because she was winded from running away.

"Are you okay?" I asked, even though I knew she wasn"t.

She was in distress. Her body was slowly shutting down. All the sprinting couldn"t have done her any favors. I did my best to shut out all the emotions that swamped me from the people around us so I could focus on Andy.

She opened her mouth to reply, but froze when a big, burly man in a black t-shirt and jeans stepped directly into our path. Disguised magic swelled in his aura, and his hand was held at an awkward angle under the edge of his leather jacket.

"The SA," I hissed, even though something about that didn"t seem right. We turned away, but I grabbed Andy"s arm when I realized there were more of them. People in civilian clothes, carrying magic charms and mundane weapons. And they had somehow materialized all around us, interspersed with the unsuspecting humans around them.

The man in front of me gave a cruel smile at my words. "Nah," he said, tilting his head. "Not SA, pretty boy. We"re not that nice." He stepped closer, the gun concealed under his jacket still pointed at us as he reached for something shiny at his belt. "Come on, let me slap these cuffs on you two and the poor, innocent little human sheep around us won"t end up bleeding."

Andy was breathing strangely, huffing in and out through her clenched teeth. "Bounty hunters," she muttered.

Then my lovely earth witch vomited on the man"s boots.