Heroes and a Hellhound: Book One Read online

  “I hate you both, and my life,” I told them seriously. They didn’t seem affected by my disdain. Silly dogs. “Just pick a damn chew toy!” I snapped.

  The puppy barked back excitedly. I pursed my lips; it had not been a challenge. He was so useless, completely ignoring the chew toys that were lined up in front of him. I reached over and pushed the puppy. He fell limply onto his side.

  Pete gave me a horrified look. I huffed at him. “Don’t give me that look; I’m evil. Get over it.” The puppy was now wriggling about, still on his back. “He’s fine!” I added defensively.

  I lay back on the tiled floor, pursing my lips. It was hard to appear merciless whilst in the company of puppies. It helped a little that I told people my occupation involved experimenting on puppies, but the actual work only really involved watching the puppies, and taking notes on which food/squeaky toys they seemed to favour.

  And sometimes cleaning up shit. Glamorous stuff.

  I gave up a few minutes later and returned the puppy to the pen with the others. Once he was locked away with the others in puppy prison, I turned to Pete, who was looking at me expectantly. Sometimes supernatural creatures attracted a familiar—an animal who attached itself to them for whatever reason. It mostly happened to witches, and they usually had cats. I got a dumb German Shepherd. Familiars were supposed to be protectors and guardians, but Pete was a total wuss and I was practically immortal, so I didn’t need protection.

  I was leaving the building, after having cleaned up, when my phone rang. I huffed out a breath but answered. “Nevaeh,” I said briskly.

  “There’s a fire downtown. Three officers and two firefighters are trapped inside,” said Jason, who was part of my cadre.

  I kicked at a stone as I continued to walk down the street. “Okay…”

  “Okay? Come on, we need to help them!”

  I puffed out my cheek. I would have pouted if he’d been able to see it. “Why me?”

  There was a brief pause. “Because you’re fireproof!” He said it as if the answer was obvious.

  “Fine, but I’m taking tomorrow off. I don’t care if y’all are dying, I will get my down time. Text me the address.” I hung up, then I looked down at my dog. “Hey, are you fireproof?”

  He panted, his tongue lolling out in a happy canine expression. He was so dumb.

  I grinned. “Would you like to find out?”

  * * *

  Dogs were not fireproof, they weren’t even a little fireproof. In fact, they were reluctant to even approach the stuff. He didn’t like the smoke either. I gave up on him after only a moment before walking into the building alone.

  Fire and smoke didn’t bother me, but the falling debris proved to be troublesome. I drew the heat from the fire, and the flames flickered before jumping to my skin. I absorbed the fire as I made my way through the hallway. A piece of the ceiling fell and hit my shoulder. Pain flared and I would have cursed, but that would have required taking a breath. Instead, I bared my teeth at no one in particular.

  Fire may be my element but it could also be a pain in the ass when hunting. Between the reek of smoke, the roar of flames and the groan of the building, my senses were almost useless. Luckily there was a path where some of the debris had been moved aside to make a trail through the hall.

  The building opened up into a large warehouse. Here there wasn’t so much smoke and I hurried to consume the fire. Some accelerants had clearly been used; it gave the fire a different taste. I hadn’t realised it had a taste until the first time I’d absorbed fire that had been fuelled by liquor.

  I caught movement towards the back of the space and headed that way. One of the officers had been trapped beneath a metal beam and the others were working to free him. I wasn’t inhumanly strong, but I didn’t concern myself with straining muscles, so I could achieve feats that most might seem unlikely.

  They all paused as they saw me approach. I’d taken out most of the fire but it had burnt large holes in my clothing, and I was covered in soot. I had to imagine I didn’t look very human.

  I took in the scene with a single glance. Then I lay down on the dirty floor beside the fallen man and braced my feet against the beam. My arms were a little toned but I had more strength in my legs, especially since I was pretty sure my right shoulder had been knocked out of its socket. One of the firefighters caught the other side of the beam, and together we managed to lift it high enough for the others to drag the fallen man out.

  One of the other officers, who had been holding his own oxygen mask to the fallen man, began coughing. I pursed my lips, then gestured for them to stay put as I jogged to the side wall. Metal, perfect.

  I concentrated the heat I had absorbed into my centre before pouring it into the wall, burning through more of my clothing in the process. Maybe I should just start doing good deeds whilst naked. Goddamned fire.

  After a while, I had a hole in the wall big enough to move through. We were all outside soon after and I watched as the fallen guy was hauled into an ambulance.

  Jason approached me with Pete by his side, smiling brightly. “See, was that so hard?”

  I gave him a hard look then I stepped to the side, braced my shoulder against the wall, and popped my arm back into place. Jason winced at the resounding crack. I glared at him, but the wound was already beginning to heal. “Don’t call me again; I don’t like saving people.” All evidence to the contrary.

  Pete stepped over to me and licked at my ribs through a hole in my shirt.

  I glared at him too. “You are a worthless goddamned mutt,” I accused.

  He nuzzled my hip, getting soot all over his fur. Joke was on him, he hated baths.

  I clenched my jaw, giving him a flat look, then reluctantly murmured, “I love you too,” and stormed off. The effect of which was diminished by the dog following at my heels with his tongue sticking out.

  3

  3 - The Eye of Mirbane

  Nevaeh -

  I stared at the Eye of Mirbane as its smooth red surface glowed lightly due to my proximity. I was pretty sure it liked me. I reached to touch the glass box which contained it. “Nevaeh!” snapped Rosa.

  “What?” I asked, sounding more defensive than I’d meant to. I took a step away from the Eye but glanced back at it.

  The shapeshifter glared at me. “That damn stone has just put us through hell! You will not open that box; you will not even touch that box. In fact, I don’t want you to even think about that goddamned stone or its box!” she all but snarled. She seemed pretty serious.

  I gave her an indulgent smile. “The stone doesn’t have trans-dimensional properties; it could not have taken you to Hell.”

  She pointed a finger at me—the finger of indisputable doom. “You know what I mean. The Eye makes demons and, evidently, hellhounds go insane. So, the worst possible thing you can do is take it out of the enchanted glass box.”

  I rolled my eyes. She was treating me like a child. I had been conscious for the past week while I’d been trapped under the Eye’s influence, insane as I was. Reluctantly, I admitted to myself that she had a point. Usually, I was relatively harmless if not provoked but, during my insanity, I’d been a bit of a handful. Not my usual sunny, effervescent self.

  “I was this close to beheading both you and Terra,” she added, holding her thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. “Terra was just destructive but you were freaking terrifying. It’s a good thing we managed to get you both under control fairly quickly.”

  “Yes,” I said brightly, glancing around at our surroundings. “Those restraints on the beds in here are super handy.” I liked the old hospital. It was the place we’d first come across the stone—chasing rumours of a recent haunting—and thus, it had become our home for the duration of our psychotic episode.

  Sure, it was dusty, old, and had at least one missing wall that could potentially compromise the buildings structural integrity—thanks to Terra—but, during my insanity, I felt like I’d bonded with the building. Well,
maybe that was still the madness talking, but I was pretty sure the building liked me, too. What building wouldn’t like me? I was awesome.

  Rosa huffed out a breath and picked up the box. “We need a secure location for this, and it clearly can’t be left with you or Terra.”

  “Why don’t you leave it here?” I suggested.

  She gave me a flat look. Clearly, she didn’t think much of my intelligence.

  “We could buy the building, have Terra and Jason fortify it. We really can’t keep meeting up at our houses, not if we’re attempting to be discreet.”

  Her expression turned thoughtful, then she glanced around sceptically. “You want to make the place we had to restrain you for a week because of your insanity, into our base?”

  I shrugged. “After spending a couple of years in Hell, this doesn’t seem so bad. Also, this place is a total dump; we can probably get it for a steal.” And who was to say when those restraints would come in handy again?

  She smiled.

  * * *

  Much to my surprise, Jason was able to get us a deal on the old building. He wasn’t able to buy it, but he’d gotten us a year long lease for the low, low cost of maintenance, upkeep, and repairs. Basically, if we made it look like less of a shit-hole, then we could use it as we pleased.

  Being the overachiever that he was, Jason turned the one of the larger rooms into a usable workspace ten days after we were given the go-ahead by the owner.

  “I liked it better before,” I told Terra as she sat at a desk in front of a number of slick black monitors. Juliette had enjoyed the excuse to go looking for furniture in secondhand shops. She had supplied the desks, chairs, a sofa, two bookshelves—one of which had been on the side of the road ‘free to a good home’—as well as a dining room set of tables and chairs. The only brand new items were Terra’s computer equipment. For a demon, Terra was surprisingly good at technology. I had been dragged from the mortal realm about 2013, and even back then I’d been having trouble keeping up.

  Pete nuzzled my hand to get my attention.

  “Pete liked it better before, too. When it was a dump, he didn’t feel bad about peeing in it,” I added, scratching my pup behind the ear.

  Terra glared up at me; it was a look that could usually make mortals quiver in fear.

  I gave a helpless shrug. “I don’t know where he got his high morals from. They certainly didn’t come from me.”

  “You think you’re funny,” she muttered.

  “No, he seriously has morals. He doesn’t even growl at people, and he ignores me when I order him to bite someone.” He really was quite useless.

  She turned to her monitors, effectively dismissing me. I turned my attention back to the room at large. It didn’t look anything like a mental asylum. Every surface was clean and polished, even the wooden desks, and bookshelves. My bookshelves always had a layer of dust, even the shelves I used regularly.

  Terra cleared her throat suddenly. “Are you experiencing any side effects from exposure to the Eye?” she asked.

  “No, well, not beyond a serious craving for human flesh,” I said, deadpan.

  She laughed but didn’t say anything else.

  Maybe she needed prompting. “Are you?”

  She huffed. “It might be my imagination but I think humans are getting smarter.”

  I gave her a look. “It’s definitely your imagination, humans are so dumb,” I told her.

  She grinned ruefully. “What I mean is they seem to be noticing what I am more, as if I’ve become more demonic.”

  That got my attention. I turned to study her. She looked the same as always to me. “Maybe you’re just a little on edge since then. Even in human form, you can be pretty scary when you’re grumpy.” Her resting bitch face was lethal.

  She nodded, then smirked and raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re not on edge?”

  I grinned. “I’ve always been insane, I’m just better at hiding it without the stone’s influence.”

  “I believe you,” she said and her laughter followed me as I headed back to the armoury. Yes, there was also an armoury. I was never leaving.

  * * *

  “So, the Eye of Mirbane was made by a witch over three centuries ago when her demon lover left her for a younger woman. The Eye was her way of getting revenge. She drove him insane and caused him to slaughter his young love, and her family,” Zobeida explained.

  I had to respect the witch. That’s one hell of a revenge, and she had to be very powerful for the stone to have retained its power all these years. However, I was a bit put out that Zo was explaining this to the others while I was trying to nap.

  I pushed to my feet from where I’d been lying behind my desk. Zo’s gaze shot to me. “How long have you been there?”

  I yawned and stretched out, ignoring her question. “How’d it end up here?”

  Zo blinked and shook her head a little, getting back on track. “Um, from what I gather it was passed down in the family until one of them gets mouthy, starts telling everyone about witchcraft and demons. Of course, no one believed her so she ended up in this place, as did the stone.”

  “Given that one of their ancestors dated a demon, I’d say that flirting with insanity was a family trait,” I commented.

  “Hey!” Terra said defensively.

  I grinned, showing her my teeth, and perched on the edge of my desk. “You know it’s true.”

  She nodded, conceding the point. “She’s not wrong.”

  I knew she hadn’t really been offended; demons aren’t the most sensitive of folk. “How did you discover the origins of the Stone?”

  “It took a lot of research,” Dee told me. “Luckily, I know a historian local to the area the stone originated from.”

  “Okay, what I meant was why did you bother? We have it contained, why do we need to know who used to own it?”

  She shot me a look. “This kind of information is important, Nevaeh. For instance, now we know that it’s witch magic, so it may be possible to find a witch to disenchant the stone.”

  I frowned. “I could have licked it and told you that it was witch magic.”

  There was a long pause as they absorbed that new piece of information. Apparently, tasting magic wasn’t a common trait.

  “If you got close enough to lick it, the stone would have driven you crazy,” Terra pointed out.

  I shrugged. “Still, you probably could have gotten me to lick it.”

  Dee shook her head. “That’s not the point, we need to understand these things. If we know how and why they happen, we may be able to prevent them from happening again.”

  “You’re talking to a hellhound, Dee; she’s probably not going to understand your motives for anything,” warned Zo.

  “I understand them, I just disagree on principle,” I stated. Information was boring unless I could wield it to destroy my enemies. And I knew of a lot of better things to use to destroy my enemies—such as a mallet, or fire, or possibly a broadsword if I’m in that sort of mood.

  4

  4 - Books and Coffee

  Nevaeh -

  Penryn was a gorgeous little town near the Cornish coast. Built on an incline that allowed you to see down to the docks for most of the way up the main street, it looked like a place straight out of a Dickensian novel, or some cozy mystery story. Or one of those romances where a city girl is dumped and moves to a small town where she falls for some hunky local guy.

  I was not a city girl. I—or more accurately, alternate time-line me—had just moved here for university. Maybe she chose here because of the picturesque beauty of the place, or maybe she’d chose it because it was the farthest place she could go without getting a passport. Who knew? The bitch was clearly crazy.

  At the highest point of the town was the university campus. Amidst beautiful parks with trees that looked centuries old, at the very least, and about a thousand fucking steps, the campus overlooked the town and, from my balcony, you could see the ocean glittering off in the dist
ance.

  “Fucking spectacular,” I muttered to myself as I sipped my coffee.

  Inside, my roommate was getting ready to leave for a lecture. And I was waiting for her to leave. I had a busy day ahead and I wanted some damn pancakes. The sounds from inside stopped and I waited a couple more seconds before venturing inside.

  Yup. It was all clear.

  I got the ready made pancake mix from the cupboard—something my mother would give me grief for, no matter the timeline—and pulled out a frying pan. One might think that I’d waited for my roomie to leave because I didn’t want to share my pancakes… and one would be correct. I also tweaked the recipe in a way that wasn’t entirely human-friendly.

  Twenty minutes later, with a stomach full of bloody pancakes, I stepped out of our block of flats. Time for me to get the lay of the land. I’d been there months but I didn’t really leave campus much, unless it was to go on one of Jason’s little exertions.

  How much did I really know about the world I’d woken up in?

  It seemed a lot like the world I’d grown up in but would I notice if it wasn’t? I wasn’t exactly the most observant when it came to world-affairs… or other people. Magic still existed, obviously. People still mostly ignored the fact that magic existed.

  People seemed surprised when I controlled fire but not crap-your-pants surprised. Just ‘oh fuck, the little blonde girl could kill me’ surprised.

  Maybe I should grab a newspaper. Was news still available in paper form? Amongst my musings, I’d made my way down off of campus. I crossed a wooden bridge that led to a residential area.

  A few houses down, I was greeted by an ecstatic bout of barking. A familiar furry beast sprinted around the side of a house into the front garden.

  “Pete. My man!”

  The dog barked, jumping around like someone had stuck a live wire up his butt. For the moment, I was glad that a fence was keeping him from bowling me over.